Telecommunications
‘Norton Rose provides on-the-ground TMT expertise, and the team is already gaining praise for its “good industry knowledge and global experience”.’
Legal 500 EMEA, 2012
Our Middle East telecommunications team has advised on some of the largest and most complex transactions in the sector, acting for a number of prominent telecommunications clients throughout the region, including network operators, equipment and service providers, government entities and investors.
We work at both the local and regional level, and also as part of an international telecommunications team on high-end cross-border mandates, working closely with our colleagues across Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, and Africa. We have been involved in a number of groundbreaking telecoms transactions throughout the Middle East and are globally recognised as one of the leading firms for merger and acquisition work in the area of international telecoms, particularly in the emerging and developing markets of the Middle East and Africa.
We have a proactive approach and sensitivity to the commercial drivers for the telecoms industry; our cross-disciplinary team draws on many years of practical and industry experience in the telecommunications sector, combined with a deep understanding of the related legal and regulatory issues facing governing the industry.
Our areas of work include:
- capital markets
- intellectual property
- licence auctions
- managed services arrangements
- mergers and acquisitions
- network sourcing and sharing arrangements
- outsourcing (including call centres and back office functions
- privatisations
- strategic joint ventures and partnering arrangements
- technology procurement
- telecoms financing
Our recent work:
- Advising Menatelecom on the outsourcing to Motorola of the design and build of its wireless network and the subsequent two-year managed services deal with Chinese vendor Huawei following the expiry of the Motorola contract.
- Advising one of the leading regional telecoms players on various mergers, acquisitions and licence bids worldwide, including acquisitions in Pakistan and successful licence bids in Nigeria and Egypt.
- Advising the lead arrangers on various Islamic and conventional financing facilities to fund the growth of a number of regional telecoms companies.
- Advising the Bahraini Government on the largest ever telecommunications transaction in the Kingdom’s history, the US$506 million acquisition of 20 per cent of the share capital of Bahrain Telecommunications Company B.S.C.(c) from Cable & Wireless plc.
Awards
- TMT Law Firm of the Year in the UAE, 2013, Corporate INTL Legal Awards