LEADING FIRMS AFRICAN HUB COUNTRIES
A member of the DLA Piper Africa Group
Plot 4, Nile Avenue East African Development Bank Building MZ & Fifth Floors Kampala, Uganda
P.O. Box 2255 Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256 414 233063 / 232604 / 250234 +256 312 250013/312 202030
Fax: +256 414 230 521 Email:
sebalulule@sebalulule.co.ug Web:
www.sebalulule.co.ug
Key Contact:
Nicholas Ecimu, Partner Tel: +256 312 250 013 Email:
necimu@sebalulule.co.ug
Firm profile:
Sebalu & Lule is a leading Ugandan business law firm. Founded in 1980, we are one of the oldest and largest law firms in the country. We are a full- service law practice with boutique expertise in projects & infrastructure, power (energy, oil & gas and mining), banking & finance, employment & employee benefits, tax, real estate & conveyancing, corporate & commercial law and dispute resolution.
Over the past decade, we have been consistently recognized as one of the top firms in Uganda by respected legal directories such as the IFLR1000: Guide to the World’s Leading Financial Law Firms. Sebalu & Lule is the Uganda member law firm of the DLA Piper Africa Group, an alliance of leading independent practices affiliated to DLA Piper LLP and working together across Africa.
International networks: The DLA Piper Africa Group, the Africa arm of the DLA Piper Group.
Energy & Infrastructure practice profile:
Sebalu & Lule possesses over 20 years experience in the energy sector and we are currently advising several key principals in the sector. We are retained by government agencies, international financiers, multinational companies and private investors to provide energy-related advice.
Oil & Gas division: Following confirmation in 2008 that Uganda possesses commercial reserves of oil in the Albertine region, the oil & gas sector has become a key economic driver and we have assumed lead legal advisory roles. We have amassed expertise in the upstream, midstream and downstream energy value chain, acquisition and disposal of oil & gas interests, oil & gas financing and other Uganda-specific legal and compliance aspects and we are currently retained as legal counsel for two of the three oil firms licensed by the Government of Uganda to conduct oil & gas exploration and extraction activities.
Finance & Projects division: Sebalu & Lule is a market leader in project and infrastructure finance; acting on the mandate of the world’s leading development financial
institutions and a number of private infrastructure entities. We have participated as local legal counsel in two of the most noteworthy project finance transactions in Uganda over the past five years. We acted as local counsel to the lenders for the financing of US$ 900 million Bujagali II hydro-power dam project and advised a Ugandan independent power producer for a US$ 35 million project financing for the expansion of its thermal electricity plant from 20MW to 50MW in what was the first wholly locally financed energy project in Uganda.
Infrastructure / Public-Private Partnerships division: We have also developed significant expertise in public-private partnerships. We render advice on several key aspects related to PPPs, notably the choice and design of PPP models, legal compliance and risk matrices and project financing. In association with DLA Piper New York, we are currently advising the Government of Uganda on the concession of assets of Uganda’s sole copper mine.
Environment & Safety division: Our environmental law practice has extensive experience in advising on projects based transactions in the energy, mining and oil & gas sector. We advise on general environmental legal compliance, due diligence investigations, environmental litigation and occupational safety and health.
Banking & Finance division: Sebalu & Lule has one of the largest finance and banking practices in Uganda. We are retained as legal counsel for eight leading commercial banks in Uganda. We are additionally retained as local counsel to the International Finance Corporation, the African Development Bank and the Eastern and Southern African Trade & Development Bank (PTA Bank).
Employment & Employee Benefits division: We have an experienced team of professionals working exclusively on employment and benefits matters. Our employment practice is retained by several multi-national organisations to advise on local law issues. Our pension practice offers legal advisory ranging from benefit set-up, drafting of trust deeds and rules, registration of schemes and trustee advisory services to retirement benefit schemes and their sponsoring employers.
Litigation & Arbitration division: Sebalu & Lule possesses extensive experience in civil and commercial litigation and commercial arbitration. The firm has been involved in several landmark cases in the fields of banking, contract, real estate, tort and constitutional law and in specialized spheres of law such as energy, expropriated properties, utilities law, employee benefits and aviation. We are currently acting for Hima Cement Limited, a subsidiary of the French conglomerate Lafarge, in a US$ 120 million dispute over the proprietary rights to a limestone mining area.
Recent transactional highlights: • Acting as local counsel for a high-level feasibility study into the proposed construction of an export pipeline to transport oil from Uganda’s Albertine Graben to the East African coast.
• Acting as local counsel in association with DLA Piper New York to the Government of Uganda for the concession of assets of Uganda’s sole copper mine, Kilembe Mines.
• Acted as legal counsel to a railway concessionaire and an Asian development bank for the project structuring and financing of the proposed redevelopment of a rail link to Northern Uganda and South Sudan.
• Acting as legal counsel to an international private finance entity and a leading regional development bank for the listing of their separate medium-term note (MTN) programmes on the Uganda Securities Exchange.
• Acted as local counsel to two European development finance institutions for the US$ 25 million additional financing to the developer of the Bujagali II hydro-power dam.
• Acted as borrower counsel to Uganda’s leading local sugar manufacturer on a US$ 23 million expansion facility from a French development finance institution.
ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE | SUB SAHARAN AFRICA 2013 71
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