Ian Hayes

Ian commenced his articles at Cliffe Dekker & Todd in 1991 and remained with the firm until September 2012. Ian moved onto ENSafrica as Director, joint head and subsequently joint business unit leader of the corporate commercial department. Ian rejoined CDH in 2021. In July 2023 Ian took over as the Head of the Corporate & Commercial practice, resuming this role that he had held prior to moving to ENSafrica.

• Advised Vodacom Group Limited and Vodafone Kenya Limited on Vodacom Group's acquisition, through Vodafone Kenya Limited, of a further effective 20% of the issued share capital of Safaricom PLC for USD2.1 billion.

• Advised Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited on its acquisition, through its wholly owned Australian subsidiary Harmony Gold (Australia) Pty Limited, of 100% of the securities in MAC Copper Limited for USD1.03 billion.

• Advised Sibanye Stillwater Limited on the enhancement of the historical Marikana Contract and the conclusion of a new chrome management agreement with a joint venture between Glencore Operations South Africa and Merafe Ferrochrome and Mining. 

• Advised Nedbank Group Limited in the sale of its 21.2% shareholding in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated to Bosquet Investments Limited for USD100 million. 

• Advised Telesure on its disposal of 1Life Insurance to Clientèle. As part of this one indivisible transaction and through a share exchange agreement, Clientèle issued a percentage of its own shares in 1Life to Telesure, resulting in Clientèle acquiring control over 1Life and Telesure remaining invested.

• Advised PPC on the strategic disposal of its shares in CIMERWA, constituting 51 per cent of CIMERWA's entire issued share capital, to National Cement Holding.

• Advised Vodacom and Vodacom Tanzania on the transfer of all its passive tower telecommunications equipment and associated land use rights to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vodacom Tower Company (TowerCo), for further shares in TowerCo.

• Advised Vodacom on its acquisition of Neotel (abandoned); on its acquisition of an indirect 34.94% interest in Safaricom from Vodafone, and Vodacom Tanzania on its IPO and listing on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.

• Advised Vodacom Tanzania on its acquisition of 100 per cent of the issued share capital of Smile Communications Tanzania, from Smile Telecoms Holdings and Smile Telecoms IP.

• Advised Sibanye-Stillwater on its acquisition of the Sandouville nickel hydrometallurgical processing facility in Normandy, France from Eramet SA.

• Advised Edcon on its various restructurings and the Business Rescue Practitioners of Edcon on the disposal of Edcon's Edgars and Jet businesses in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini.

• Chambers Global 2021 - 2026 ranked Ian in Band 1 for corporate/M&A.
• The Legal 500 EMEA 2015–2025 included Ian in the ‘Hall of Fame’ for commercial, corporate/M&A.
• The Legal 500 EMEA 2022–2025 recommended Ian in the ‘Hall of Fame’ for mining.
• The Legal 500 EMEA 2022 recommended Ian for banking & finance.
• IFLR1000 2021–2025 ranked Ian as highly regarded in capital markets: debt, capital markets: equity, energy and infrastructure, M&A, and private equity.