Biography: Mergers and Acquisitions

Christo Els is a partner and co-head of the mergers and acquisition practice at Webber Wentzel.

Christo specialises in public and private M&A (cross-border and domestic), equity capital markets, empowerment transactions, corporate restructuring, general corporate and commercial law across a range of industries, including banking, retail, mining, telecoms and manufacturing.

Christo has been involved in most of the largest FDI transactions in South Africa, including the recent attempt by HSBC to acquire a controlling interest in Nedbank and the acquisition by Wal-Mart of a controlling interest in Massmart. He has also acted in many of the largest corporate transactions in South Africa in recent years including the acquisition by Vodafone of a controlling interest in, and the subsequent listing of, Vodacom Group Limited; the acquisition of a strategic 20 per cent interest by ICBC in Standard Bank of South Africa Limited; the unbundling of the Mondi Group from Anglo American and the subsequent listing of Mondi on the London Stock Exchange and the JSE; the unbundling of Discovery Holdings Limited from FirstRand Bank Limited; the take-over of the Edcon Group by Bain Capital; the acquisition of a controlling interest in Absa Bank Limited by Barclays Bank plc; the acquisition of all of the issued shares in VenFin Limited by Vodafone plc, and the Naspers empowerment transactions.

Christo graduated, cum laude, with BCL and LLB degrees from the University of Pretoria, after which he joined Webber Wentzel as a candidate attorney in 1996. He also holds a Masters in tax law, which he received, cum laude, from the University of South Africa.