NIGERIA
LEAGUE TABLES \ FIRM BRIEFINGS Nigeria ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Highly recommended Adepetun Caxton-Martins Agbor & Segun (ACAS) AELEX Aluko & Oyebode Banwo & Ighodalo G Elias & Co Olaniwun Ajayi Templars Udo-Udoma & Belo-Osagie
Recommended Ajumogobia & Okeke Alliance Law Firm Jackson Etti & Edu ODITAH Odujinrin & Adefulu Perchstone & Graeys Solola & Akpana
Notable Alegeh & Co Advocaat Law Practice Austen-Peters & Co Benchmac & Ince Blackfriars Detail Commercial Solicitors Ikeyi & Arifayan
Introduction
As with South Africa, one large programme has been dominating talk through 2012 and that has been the complete reorganising and privatisation of the country’s power sector. The privatisation of 17 distribution and generation companies and three hy- dropower dams was beginning to reach conclusion in early 2013. The transmission company will remain state-owned. “It attracted 800 or so bids,” says a partner involved in the process. “The Niger- ian government and the World Bank have been trying to do this for years… all the major players, Citibank, BNP Paribas, IFC, they all want to know about the transactions”. “A little like oil sector reforms,” says another lawyer, “years of our lives can go by and nothing gets done. Nigeria has now gotten over a huge hurdle and if people can see that projects can get done and that investments can be bankable it could accelerate the whole investment process”. These views reflect the general consensus on the importance of the power reforms. Another key topic has been the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB),
an act that proposes one single legal and regulatory framework for the petroleum industry. The Bill passed a second hearing in the Senate in March 2013 but remains in parliament. According to practitioners, legal uncertainty in the sector, arising from the Bill’s arduous passage, has dampened foreign investment in oil and gas. Locally political tensions and some resistance elsewhere in the business sector continues to cast doubts over the Bill’s passage.
Adepetun Caxton-Martins Agbor & Segun (ACAS)
2012 Firm Overview Cross-border matters
Equatorial Guinea
Most active disciplines Arbitration litigation, company and commercial, M&A and joint- ventures, banking, capital markets, project finance, EPC, employment, environmental, IP, land, public and administrative, tax
Key sectors Mining and metals, oil and gas, power, ports, roads
Key partners Sola Adepetun, Felicia Kemi Segun
ACAS is synonymous with energy work and extremely well known in Nigeria both for contentious and non-contentious matters. Interna- tional clients consistently rate the firm. All the name partners appeared on the key deals, with the addition
of Chisa Uba, Fred Ntido and Paul Okonji in tax disputes. However, the two standout energy lawyers are Felicia Kemi Segun and Sola Ade- petun. Segun is praised as “very impressive” by clients. “I rate her highly in what is a very important jurisdiction,” says a fellow international partner, who points out that “she is very good with clients”.
Matters In 2012, the team worked as local counsel on one deal involving Nor- ton Rose and Herbert Smith Freehills for the reassignment of partici- pating interests in an oil mining lease (OML), valued at $150 million. The firm advised on a $1 billion acquisition of an upstream oil & gas company and a financing package worth $230 million for the acquisi- tion of OML 126. A team also handled a large infrastructure tax dis- pute case relating to a port.
AELEX
2012 Firm Overview Cross-border matters
Benin, Chad, Ghana, South Africa
Highlight clients NNPC, Shell, ExxonMobil, BG International, Korea National Oil Company
Most active disciplines
Arbitration, litigation, company and commercial, M&A and joint- ventures, corporate restructuring, asset finance, banking, project finance (infrastructure), EPC, employment, environmental, IP, land, tax
Key sectors
Mining and metals, oil and gas, power, airports and aviation, ports, roads
Key partners Lawrence Fubara Anga, Soji Awogbade, Theophilus Emuwa
38 ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE | SUB SAHARAN AFRICA 2013
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