Finalists: Allen & Overy • Aluko & Oyebode • DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr • Fasken Martineau • Gabinete Legal Mocambique/PLMJ • Norton Rose Fulbright • Webber Wentzel

Bowman Gilfillan's role advising hotel chain Marriott International on its acquisition of the Protea Hospitality Group in a deal worth 2bn rand (£115m) secured it the award for M&A Team of the Year. The transaction makes Marriott the largest hotel chain in South Africa.

The size and scope of the deal and the multi-jurisdictional and regulatory aspects made this transaction particularly testing, involving the acquisition of the intellectual property of the Protea Hospitality Group, the purchase of shares in five Protea subsidiaries and the merger of a further 12 Protea subsidiaries into 12 Marriott subsidiaries newly incorporated in South Africa for the purposes of the transaction.

All of this was carried out in respect of a business located across seven African jurisdictions: South Africa, Nigeria, Namibia, Zambia, Uganda, Malawi and Tanzania.

In addition, the need to accommodate various regulatory requirements, such as South Africa's exchange control regulations, competition and anti-trust filings and
liquor licence approvals, made the deal even more challenging.

Ashleigh Hale, deputy head of Bowman Gilfillan's corporate department, explains: "Marriott wanted to implement their usual hotel licensing, hotel management and franchising business models with minimal changes, which required a high degree of innovation from our team to overcome significant issues pertaining to exchange control and taxation."

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