Profile: Ezra Davids

Ezra Davids Law Firm: Bowman Gilfillan
Office: Bowman Gilfillan
165 West Street
PO Box 785812, Sandton
2146
City: Johannesburg
Country: South Africa
Tel: +27 11 669 9320
Fax: +27 11 669 9001
Email: e.davids@bowman.co.za

Mergers and Acquisitions

Biography: Mergers and Acquisitions

Ezra Davids is the head of the corporate department at Bowman Gilfillan specialising in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and securities law. Some of the most recent transactions in which Ezra has acted as lead partner include acting as South African counsel to M1 and Investcom in the latter's acquisition by MTN (US$5.5 billion), advising Barrick Gold Corporation in its disposal of Barrick Gold South Africa (US$1.55 billion) and for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup in the disposal by Polyus (Norilisk) of its entire shareholding in Gold Fields Limited (US$2.02 billion).

Ezra is also the relationship partner for a number of the firm's major clients such as Barrick Gold Corporation, Nokia, UPS, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Eskom and Transnet. He is also a member of the faculty advisory board of the Law School of the University of Cape Town and a member of the board of trustees of the CIDA Empowerment Trust (the fundraising arm of CIDA University, which is an institution focusing on providing tertiary education to disadvantaged students). He is also the chairman of the recent developments in mergers and acquisitions subcommittee of the business organisations committee of the International Bar Association.

This biography is an extract from The International Who's Who of Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyers which can be purchased from our bookstore.

Corporate Governance

Biography: Corporate Governance

Ezra Davids is the head of the corporate department at Bowman Gilfillan specialising in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and securities law. Some of the most recent transactions in which Ezra has acted as lead partner include acting as South African counsel to M1 and Investcom in the latter's acquisition by MTN (US$5.5 billion), advising Barrick Gold Corporation in its disposal of Barrick Gold South Africa (US$1.55 billion) and for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup in the disposal by Polyus (Norilisk) of its entire shareholding in Gold Fields Limited (US$2.02 billion).

Ezra is also the relationship partner for a number of the firm's major clients like Barrick Gold Corporation, Nokia, UPS, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Eskom and Transnet. He is also a member of the Faculty Advisory Board of the Law School of the University of Cape Town and a member of the board of trustees of the CIDA Empowerment Trust (the fund raising arm of CIDA University which is an institution focusing on providing tertiary education to disadvantaged students). He is also the chairman of the sub-committee on recent developments in M&A (the business organisations committee of the International Bar Association).

This biography is an extract from The International Who's Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers which can be purchased from our bookstore.

Mining

Biography: Mining

Ezra Davids is the head of Bowman Gilfillan's corporate, commercial and financial services department. As a partner in the department and in addition to his management responsibilities, Ezra specialises in M&A transactions (listed and unlisted), debt and equity capital markets, (IPOs), primary and secondary offerings) transaction and special advisory work. Further, Ezra has particular expertise in corporatisation and privatisation of state owned enterprises (SOEs) and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) transactions and mining and resources related transactions.

Some of the transactions in which Ezra has acted as lead partner for our firm include the SA Chrome/Xstrata merger of chrome assets (approximately 8.2 billion rand), advising Goldman Sachs as global coordinator in the disposal by Norilsk of its shareholding in Gold Fields Ltd, advising Goldman Sachs in the combined offering by Anglogold-Ashanti and Anglo American plc of shares in Anglogold-Ashanti.

Ezra is the firm's relationship partner for some of the firm's major clients like Goldman Sachs, UBS, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Barrick Gold Corporation, MCI, United Parcel Services, Eskom, Transnet and the Industrial Development Corporation. He is also a trustee of the MTN Staff Share Incentive Scheme and a member of the Faculty Advisory Board of the University of Cape Town Law School. He also spent some time at the Bowman Gilfillan London Office and at a London magic circle firm. Ezra is also the South African contributor to the 2006 edition of Global Competition Review's Getting the Deal Through: Securities Finance.

This biography is an extract from The International Who's Who of Mining Lawyers which can be purchased from our bookstore.