Ezra Davids
165 West Street
Sandton
PO Box 785812
2146
Biography: Mergers and Acquisitions
Ezra Davids is the head of the corporate/M&A department at Bowman Gilfillan specialising in M&A, 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 Bharti in its then proposed merger with MTN (US$24 billion), advising Verizon Communications in its disposal of its subsidiary, Verizon Business (South Africa), 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$2.2 billion), for SABMiller in the US$1 billion BEE transaction for its South African subsidiary, for Old Mutual plc in the aborted negotiations related to the acquisition by HSBC of 70 per cent of the issued share capital of Nedbank Limited, for Tokyo Stock Exchange listed Kansai Paint Co Ltd successful hostile takeover of JSE-listed Freeworld Coatings Limited (2.4 billion rand) and for PPR in the proposed disposal of its furniture and household goods business, Conforama, to JSE-listed Steinhoff International Holdings Limited (12 billion rand).Ezra is also the relationship partner for a number of the firm's major clients such as Bharti, Verizon, Barrick Gold Corporation, Nokia, UPS, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Eskom and Transnet. He is also the chairman 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 Legal Resources Trust and a patron of the student sponsorship programme (a not for profit organisation focusing on providing high school education to disadvantaged students). He is also the former 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.
Other Practice Areas
Ezra Davids also features in the following practice areas:
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