INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
Ever since UGGC Africa was established, its international development policy has always centred on assistance offered to international investors by the Asset Department – Corporate Department.
UGGC Africa advises and assists investors in all the phases of their project, from the legal and tax structuring of their investment project to handling any work necessary for its operation.
For each investment project, the firm carries out a strategic analysis of any legal and tax risks so that an optimum investment vehicle can be selected and an appropriate legal solution proposed: creation of investment funds, acquisitions, equity participation, rights transfer, joint ventures, restructuring, mergers, de-mergers, partial contributions of assets , etc.
UGGC Africa has broad experience in the domain of investment and puts its expertise at the disposal of each investor. The firm is involved in all aspects of the investment process, from the preparation to the negotiation of legal documents (letters of interest, investment protocol, acquisition contracts, debt guarantees, etc.) as well as handling all legal formalities. The firm also assists investors with the financing of these projects (credit operations, leveraged operations, etc.) and then ensures a regular review of each investment operation.
The firm also assists investors in their operations to increase or decrease equity, plus securities and bond issues.
In all sectors of activity, UGGC Africa advises companies, their directors and shareholders or any individual in the scope of acquisition operations or asset disposals as well as those wishing to consolidate their financial investments in France or overseas.
INVESTMENTS IN EUROPE
UGGC Africa is able to handle business throughout Africa from its bases in Paris and Brussels and with the assistance of a network of long-term correspondents.
The Brussels office, further to being competent in European law and Belgian law, also works throughout the Benelux area for the creation of holdings as well as dealing with industrial projects and commercial properties.
The firm regularly assists companies wishing to expand their business into central Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania).
Through its regular correspondents, the firm has also handled business in Cameroon and Ivory Coast.
INVESTMENTS IN ASIA
The firm can assist clients throughout Asia through its offices in China (Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen) and India.
Each of the UGGC partners practising in China has acquired between 10 and 15 years’ local experience. The five partners oversee and coordinate the activities of 20 Asian and European associates. The firm is able to operate directly throughout China from the country’s three largest metropoleis (Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen). An “Asia Desk” in Paris, with perfect knowledge of Chinese legal issues, completes this geographic coverage. The UGGC team is one of the three largest teams of French lawyers working in China.
On a structural level, UGGC Africa has established a privileged, increasingly integrated partnership with a Chinese business law firm. This arrangement provides specialised resources for the Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen offices. This “partner” firm has been selected for its excellent reputation in the fields in which it operates, for its competence in certain specific areas and because its teams complement those of UGGC Africa.
As Indian regulations do not as yet permit the independent establishment of foreign law firms in the country, UGGC Africa has an “India Desk” in Paris, a permanent presence in New Delhi and draws on a network of non-exclusive privileged partners operating in the strategic locations of India’s economic development.
These partners have been selected for their competence, the quality of their lawyers, their rigour and the excellent reputation they have acquired with their European and American clientele. Their lawyers are graduates from top Indian, US and UK universities.
The firm’s broad network across Asia allows them to handle business in the countries where they have offices as well as in other countries in South-East Asia.
The firm has assisted several international groups in etablishing their businesses in Vietnam and Thailand.
INVESTMENTS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
UGGC Africa has expanded with a view to servicing its international clientele, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Having worked regularly in this area, UGGC Africa has acquired both broad and specific expertise in handling matters related to business law in Africa. This area of law has undergone considerable changes since many countries have adopted the treaty concerning the harmonisation of business law in Africa (OHADA).
UGGC Africa regularly works for States or their administrations, public establishments or companies or for foreign investors in all economic and financial sectors (industry, natural resources, public works contracts, distribution, the food industry, investment funds).
The firm’s aim is to assist clients in all their legal and fiscal issues concerning their industrial or local commercial projects: external growth operations, project financing, privatisations, etc.
The firm also represents clients in litigation, whether before local courts or arbitration tribunals.
INVESTMENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
UGGC Africa advises clients etablishing their businesses in Africa.
The firm has been working for several years for international groups with subsidiaries or branch activities in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar.
The firm also handles business for several clients from this region as regards their investments in Europe, North Africa and Asia.
INVESTMENTS IN THE MAGHREB REGION
UGGC Africa has a long experience in investing in the Maghreb, which led it to open an office in Casablanca in 2002.
The Casablanca office has thus become one of the most important foreign law firms in Morocco, assisting its French and international clients for all their Moroccan law issues, and particularly for all of their high-profile operations (Mergers & acquisitions, structured finance and real estate investments) and privatization operations.
The firm also has recognized expertise in competition law and has carried out most of the major merger control operations in Morocco.
From the office in Casablanca and the Desk Africa in Paris, UGGC assists its clients on a daily basis throughout the MENA zone (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt).