corporate and commercial law

Our lawyers are fully aware of the need for legal advice and legal structures to be compatible with the needs of modern commerce, industry and finance.

Corporate, commercial and financial services constitute the major part of our practice. South Africa’s reintegration into international markets has dramatically changed the face of our economy and the way business is conducted. Bowman Gilfillan has anticipated and is reflecting these patterns of change.

We have been involved in several of South Africa’s ground-breaking corporate and financial transactions, and advise listed and unlisted domestic and international corporations, banks and financial institutions, light and heavy industrial firms, state-owned enterprises and government departments. This has given us a strong foundation from which to advise domestic and international clients in all sectors of the economy, including building, engineering, financial services, information technology, manufacturing, mining and energy, pharmaceuticals and transport.

Our lawyers continually review our service standards against the benchmark of the service expectations of multinational clients. At the same time, we strive to ensure that the solutions we provide are cost effective. Our size, resources, combination of breadth of skills, communications, facilities and geographic spread enable us to handle the largest and most time-critical transactions when required.

areas of corporate and commercial law expertise

• Africa Group
• Asset-based Finance
• Aviation and Aircraft Finance
• Bankruptcy and Restructuring
• Broadcasting and Electronic Communications
• Capital Markets and Securities Law
• Commercial Contracts and Joint Ventures
• Commercial Property
• Competition (anti-trust), International trade and Lobbying
• Construction and Engineering
• Corporate and Commercial
• Corporate Finance
• Cross-border Transactions
• Due diligence Investigations
• Empowerment Transactions
• Energy
• Environmental, Natural Resources and Climate Change
• Exchange Control
• Information Technology
• Insolvency and Corporate Recoveries
• Insurance and Reinsurance
• IPOs and Listings
• Media and Entertainment
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Modernisation of Company Law and Corporate Governance
• Mining
• Oil and Gas
• Outward and Inward Investment
• Pharmaceutical and Healthcare
• Privatisation and Restructuring of State Assets
• Project finance, Infrastructure Development and Public-private partnerships (PPP)
• Public and Regulatory law with Commercial Implications
• Securities Transactions (including Public Offerings)
• Securitisations
• Sport
• Taxation
• Technology, Media and Telecommunications

We also advise and represent clients before competition tribunals and parliamentary sub-committees.

recently our track record includes advising:

• International clients in their bids for the privatisations of major state-owned enterprises;
• A public entity in its restructuring and subsequent corporatisation;
• Domestic and international financial institutions in financing acquisitions and concession projects;
• Some of the country’s largest corporations in major unbundling (demerger) transactions;
• Consortia of unions and black business in some of the major empowerment transactions;
• A major empowerment corporation in its initial public offering and subsequent listing;
• Agents, arrangers and underwriters in international bond issues and syndicated loan facilities;
• Major South African corporations in their international and domestic offerings and placings;
• Bidders, targets and their financial advisers in some of the major contested and non-contested take-overs and mergers;
• A major mining house on the South African legal aspects of the listing of a number of mining companies in its group on NASDAQ and
• Major South African and international corporations on the newly enacted competition legalisation.