TowerXchange Who’s Who: Law firms

The TowerXchange Who’s Who provides a guide to the most experienced practitioners in a specific field of expertise; introducing you to the individuals you need to have on speed-dial to help you achieve your objectives in infrastructure sharing. In this special feature, we look at the lawyers who have advised both operators and towercos on tower transactions in Africa.

In order to buy or sell telecoms towers, do you need a telecoms lawyer? A real estate lawyer? Or an M&A lawyer? The answer is yes – to all three! There’s a small universe of lawyers with ‘hands dirty’ experience of tower sharing transactions in Africa – in fact, TowerXchange generally finds ourselves referred to one of eight practices, listed here in alphabetical order, each of which has impressive credentials.

John Graham, Partner at Clifford Chance has worked on all of American Tower’s bids in Africa, including the deals closed with MTN and Cell C.  John recently returned from Abu Dhabi where he advised a number of regional operators regarding their infrastructure and M&A activity. TowerXchange has spoken to John at some length, and he clearly has considerable expertise in infrastructure sharing and is spending a lot of his time advising on bids in Africa and the Middle East.

Natasha Good, Partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has been found on the opposite side of the negotiating table from John, representing MTN in negotiations with American Tower and other towercos. Natasha has an impressive telecoms pedigree: subsequent to a year on secondment to Offtel (now Offcom, the UK telecoms regulator), Natasha built up extensive experience advising telecoms infrastructure transactions, initially in Europe where she aided Hutchinson and T-Mobile’s 3G network sharing. Natasha is now increasingly focusing on Africa where she has advised MTN in Ghana and Uganda. Natasha is a member of the TowerXchange “Inner Circle”.

Nick Elverston, Amanda Hale and their telecoms team at Herbert Smith Freehills have done a lot of African work, including advising Bharti on the acquisition of Zain’s African telecoms business in 15 countries, being part of the team representing Cell C on aspects of the American Tower transaction and associated 2G/3G roll-out, and advising the banks in relation to the Seacom undersea cable project. Most recently, Nick and Amanda advised on the biggest active infrastructure sharing deal in the world – the Cornerstone joint venture between Vodafone and Telefonica (O2) in the UK, in which over 18,000 towers are being shared as well as the rollout of LTE active assets.

IHS Africa referred TowerXchange to Linklaters’ Vincent Ponsonnaille who handled IHS’ recent work in French speaking Africa. Vincent is joined in Linklaters’ TMT team by Julian Cunningham-Day among others. Linklaters’ experience in Africa includes advising Zain, IHS and other operators on local tower sharing projects in Tanzania, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Uganda as well as a variety of pan-African tower sharing initiatives between the continent’s largest operators. Linklaters’ experience of telecom towers began with advising large UK incumbents such as BT and National Grid on the sharing of their infrastructure. Linklaters has subsequently advised on various European infrastructure sharing projects, as well as Vodafone Essar’s formation of the massive Indian tower JV Indus, while they also advised on Bharti Infratel’s recent IPO.  Linklaters recently announced a strategic alliance with Webber Wentzel.

Bruce Gutenplan, Partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, works closely with his partner, Mitch Berg, on tower transactions. “For more than 15 years, we have represented leading investors, telecommunication carriers and tower companies in some of the largest, most innovative and precedent setting transactions in the U.S. and around the globe. In Africa, we have represented Millicom in its Ghana, Tanzania and DRC transactions with Helios Towers Africa and Cell C in its deal with American Tower in South Africa, and we’re counsel to Soros Fund Management, the lead investor in Helios,” Bruce said.

Simmons & Simmons advised MTN during their 2012 tower transactions in Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire, culminating in the agreement to sell 1,758 towers to IHS Africa. M&A Partner Christian Taylor co-heads the firm’s Africa growth markets group and came to Simmons & Simmons from Freshfields. He has advised MTN on many of their transactions in Francophone Africa. Christian was joined in leading the Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire deal team by ICT Partner James Cotter.

Jeffrey Eldredge, Partner at Vinson & Elkins is joined by colleagues Robert Dixon and François Feuillat. “We have 15 years’ experience in tower transactions, principally in Europe and Africa,” says Eldredge. “We have advised on over ten sale and leaseback transactions in the last couple of years in countries such as the DRC, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania. We have also advised on various investments in the sector.” Jeffrey Eldredge is a member of the TowerXchange “Inner Circle”, and you can read an interview with Jeffrey and Robert here where they explain the Sale Purchase Agreements and Master Lease Agreements underpinning infrastructure sharing agreements.

Webber Wentzel is a truly African law firm, with over 500 lawyers in South Africa. Through their involvement in the Africa Legal Network and their network of “Best Friend Firms”, Webber Wentzel can provide clients with a unique expertise of local jurisdictions and cultures, and a deep understanding of the ‘on the ground’ challenges companies can face. Webber Wentzel’s experienced telecoms practice does a lot of work for MTN and Africa specialist Steven De Backer, who’s worked on some landmark transactions throughout the African continent in different sectors, has helped IHS Africa secure finance and make bids in Tanzania and the DRC. Steven shares his views on how to accelerate infrastructure sharing transactions in an interview here.