Private Equity

As a private equity fund, investor or management team, you face daily pressures of valuations, performance, exit strategies and regulation. The relative availability of debt, together with significant levels of capital committed to the private equity industry or held on corporate balance sheets, has strongly impacted the competition for assets and pricing levels.

A cohesive private equity strategy will support you to ensure that you acquire the right assets and obtain maximum value from your portfolio. 

We are structured around your business sectors and those of your targets. This means we can advise you on all stages of a fund’s life-cycle, from formation and administration to the making of investments, portfolio monitoring, restructuring and exiting.

Your deals are executed according to tight deadlines and complex regulatory constraints. Our multidisciplinary specialist team in South Africa, supported by over 70 offices globally can mobilize quickly, whatever the size and complexity of your transaction. 

How we can help 

With tax, exchange control, regulatory, B-BBEE, employment, banking, commercial and disputes expertise, we can also assist in the protection and growth of your funds and investments.

With extensive experience covering all aspects of private equity and venture capital, including:

• establishing and structuring private equity and venture capital funds
• advising on investments into private equity and venture capital funds, including tax, exchange control considerations, broad-based black economic empowerment and regulatory approval
• structuring and advising on investments by private equity and venture capital funds, including due diligence investigations, tax structuring, regulatory considerations, exchange control, competition and the acquisition, disposals and related transactional activity of these funds
• advising on company law, governance and management incentive issues affecting portfolio companies and private equity firms
• advising as to exit strategies including the efficient structuring, negotiation and execution of initial public offerings, trade sales and recapitalisations

Whether your deal is in the upper or mid private equity or venture market, our specialist lawyers can guide you towards the best business outcome in your home markets and across multiple jurisdictions.