Finalists: Absa Corporate and Investment Banking – Africa and regulatory legal team • Eskom – construction team • Life Healthcare Group

Employing 4,000 people across 14 African countries, AFGRI is a leading diversified agricultural solutions and industrial food processing company. Based in South Africa, the three-person legal team has assisted the company in several key transactions, including advising on the largest foreign direct investment into a South African agriculture company to date.

The 2.4bn rand (£0.14bn) deal saw AgriGroupe Holdings acquire all of the
listed shares of AFGRI, with AFGRI's small team involved in all aspects of the transaction including dealing with the competition authorities to gain approval. In particular the South African authorities represented a hurdle because the deal
raised several public interest issues.

Other notable achievements over the year include the recovery of a penalty from the competition authorities and involvement in the creation of a commodity exchange in East Africa and Nigeria to establish an efficient marketplace to deal in agricultural products contracts.

The team has reduced annual legal spend by 20%, while also managing to bring litigation against continuing operations down to 2% of all claims.

A recent promotion has seen one of the team's members become the first black woman to join the company's executive committee.