Finalists

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Bowman Gilfillan Africa Group
Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr
Eversheds
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Hogan Lovells
Linklaters
Norton Rose Fulbright

Winner: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

"Complex, innovative, strategic," said one judge of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's work advising private equity house The Abraaj Group on a string of high-profile deals in Africa. Abraaj has helped pioneer the growth and development of the private equity industry in Africa, deploying over $3bn (£2bn) across the continent, with a focus on the healthcare sector.

Freshfields fielded lawyers from its offices in Dubai, London and Amsterdam on the legal work required to underpin the group's healthcare strategy in North Africa. According to Freshfields' submission, the transactions provide a "textbook showcase" of the key aspects of the private equity lifecycle: namely fund-raising – including from development finance institutions; standalone acquisitions – including a public tender offer on the Egyptian Stock Exchange; portfolio management; and disposals, including a secondary sale to another private equity investor and an IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

Central to this process was the establishment of the North Africa Hospital Holdings Group, which operates in Egypt and Tunisia, and its subsequent acquisitions. The group's mission is "to promote and improve the accessibility of healthcare by providing high quality patient-centric services".

This was a unique venture and Freshfields' team, led by Pervez Akhtar (pictured), regional managing partner for the MENA region, had to negotiate exchange control restrictions, antitrust issues, changes to tax regime enforcement practices mid transaction and – in the case of the acquisition of Cairo Medical Centre – reforms of the rules applicable to tender offers and acquisitions made to public shareholders.