Arig Ali

Practice Areas

Corporate practice, Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets

Career

Arig Ali, Partner, specializes in the Corporate practice, Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets. With 22 years of experience acquired in both Egypt and the UK, selected examples of the transactions she has taken part in include:

* Advising the Egyptian Ministry of Finance in the establishment of a joint venture company, in cooperation with Global Blue, to establish a new electronic system at all Egyptian sea, air, and land ports to facilitate the electronic refund of the value-added tax (VAT) for goods bought by tourists. (In progress)

* Advising the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) in the development of one of its owned vacant lands located next to the old museum of Cairo. (In progress)

* Leading the team advising ASGC Group (Al Shafar General Contracting Co.), a leading company in the construction sector with a head office in the UAE on the expansion of its business in other sectors (than construction) through (i) investing directly or indirectly in Egyptian companies of different sizes (start-ups, medium sized and large companies),as well as venture capital funds such as BECO Fund III LP and RMaxCoInv C.V.; and (ii) the establishment of one of the first venture studios in Egypt. (In progress)

* Acted as sole legal counsel for B Investments Holding SAE (“B Investments”) in relation to the investment of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (“TSFE”), through its healthcare and pharmaceutical sub-fund ("TSFE Sub-Fund"), in B Healthcare Investments SAE (“BHI”). (2023)

* Providing the World Bank with a report on the proposed revision of the legal framework in Egypt of the Private Equity and Venture Capital funds. (2022)

* Leading the team advising on the subscription by Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications (“Vodafone”) in a Considerable Stake of the Share Capital of Ebtikar Holding for Financial Services SAE’s Non-Banking Financial Services Subsidiaries. (2022)

* Co-leading the team advising Ebtikar Holdings for Financial Investments SAE (Ebtikar) in connection with its contemplated initial public offering on the Egyptian Exchange. (In progress)

* Leading the team which advised Raya Holdings for Financial Investments SAE in connection with its joint venture with Haier Electric towards establishing a 200 million EGP home appliances factory. (2020)

* Acting for Actis LLP since 2009 on the majority of its transaction in Egypt. Recently, led the team which advised Actis LLP in relation to its successful acquisition of 7% of the issued ordinary share capital of Fawry for Banking & Payment Technology Services SAE through a private placement. (2019)

* Leading the team which represented Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co.,Ltd (“Goodix”) in its asset purchase acquisition consisting of acquiring all the components of the application-specific integrated circuit design business unit of SI-WARE SYSTEMS SAE either directly or through its affiliates including the transfer of this business unit’s employees to Goodix. (2019)

* Leading the team which advised BPE Holdings and TCV1, members of a consortium made up of BPE Holdings, TCV1 and Acquire which purchased a majority stake of Tamweel Group from Orascom Development Egypt. Tamweel Group is made up of four companies that work in the non-banking financial services sector, namely in financial leasing, mortgage finance, factoring, collection and insurance brokerage. (2019)

* Leading the team which advised Hewlett Packard (“HP”) on the acquisition of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd’s printer business (the Egyptian leg of the transaction). The transaction overall value is USD 1.05 billion. (2018)

* Leading the team which advised Emirates Hospitals Group on the consolidation of its healthcare services companies with those of Alameda Group under one holding company to be owned by the two parties. Alameda Group is a leading private healthcare Group with rapidly growing activities that include hospitals, outpatient clinics, diagnostic centres, medical laboratories, rehabilitation centres and pharmacies. The scope of work included conducting a full-fledged due diligence over the Alameda Group’s companies and advising on the transaction documents from an Egyptian law perspective. (2018)

* Advising Actis LLP, a global pan-emerging market private equity firm, in: (i) USD 244 million acquisition of 9.33% of the issued share capital of the Commercial International Bank (2009); (ii) USD 102 million investment in Edita Food Industries (2013); (iii) acquisition of a minority stake in Integrated Diagnostic Holdings (2014); and the sale of Emerging Market Payment. (2016)

* Leading the team carrying out the full- fledged legal due diligence over Orascom Hotels & Development SAE and 58 of its Egyptian subsidiaries to enable the company to carry out all the necessary corporate actions for its restructuring in preparation for its public offering. (2014)

* Co-leading the team advising Raya Contact Centre on its successful listing with the Egyptian Stock Exchange and the public and private offering of its shares (including the international offering).

* Leading the acquisition of ARGO EGYPT PLASTICS SAE by ALPLA WERKE ALWIN LEHNER GmbH & Co KG (Alpla) - a leading Austrian packaging company. She also led Alpla’s acquisition ofTaba Group. (2016)

* Leading the team working on restructuring the assets owned by the third generation of one of the renowned Egyptian families and assisting the international counsel in the creation of a family office offshore.

* Advising the Egyptian Ministry of Finance on the design, construction, finance and operation of the 6th of October Wastewater Treatment Plant PPP Project (A project that was later cancelled by the Government).

* Advising the Egyptian Ministry of Finance in conjunction with KPMG on the design, financing, construction and operation of the secondary treatment stage for Abo Rawash wastewater treatment plant PPP Project and the operation and maintenance of the existing primary treatment facilities (Due to the 2011 Revolution, the project was put on hold by the Government and then it was re-launched).

* Advising the International Finance Corporation on the New Alexandria University Hospitals PPP Project. (2012 and 2013)

* Advising the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in relation to the provision of a feasibility study related to the possibility of carrying out Phase 4 of the Cairo Contact Center Park in accordance with the provisions of the PPP Law No. 67/2010. (2013)

* Acting as lead assistant to the team acting as local counsel to Exim-Bank and the commercial lenders in relation to the financing and guarantee of a 2,000 metric tons per day of anhydrous ammonia plant to be constructed in a free zone near Suez.

* Advising the IFC on the possible security package for an electricity project to be established by a public business sector type of companies. Ms. Ali also conducted a critical assessment of the sub-sovereign financing possibilities within the infrastructure sector in Egypt for the EBRD.

Chambers and Partners also ranked her as Band 2 Lawyer in the Corporate / M&A practice (2021, 2022, and 2023), as Band 3 Lawyer (2020), and as “Up and Coming” Lawyer (2019). IFLR1000 ranked Arig as “Highly Regarded Leading Lawyer” in the practices of Capital Markets, Project Development, and M&A in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 - and as “Leading Lawyer” in the Financial and Corporate practice in 2017 and as “Rising Star” in 2016. The LEGAL 500 ranked her as “Leading Individual” in the Commercial, Corporate, and M&A practice in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 - and recommended her in this practice in 2017 and 2018 and recognized her as “Next Generation Lawyer” in 2016.

She obtained her Maîtrise in law from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France, a license in law from Cairo University, her post graduate diploma in law and the legal practice course from BPP Law School and her Masters of Laws from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Arig is the Head of the Legal Committee of the Chambre de Commerce Française en Egypte. She is proficient in Arabic, her mother tongue, English and French. Ms. Ali joined ZH in 2013 from an international law firm.

In addition to her qualification as an English solicitor before the Supreme Court of England and Wales (since 2009), she is also admitted before the Egyptian Bar Association and the Egyptian Court of Appeal.