Finalists: Anjarwalla & Khanna; Bowmans (highly commended); MMC Africa Law; Webber Wentzel.

ENSafrica was crowned the Competition and Regulatory Team of the Year, for its work helping clear the policy hurdles on Africa's largest-ever insurance M&A deal.

The transaction involved South African financial services provider Sanlam increasing its stake (via a subsidiary) in Morocco's Saham Finances from about 47% to 100%, as it seeks to become Africa's largest non-banking financial services group. That meant assembling a multidisciplinary team covering corporate law, M&A, regulatory services and competition law across seven African countries (Ghana, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda).

Given the hefty size of both institutions (Saham has business in 26 African countries through 65 subsidiaries), ENSafrica had to put together a comprehensive regulatory clearance strategy to ensure the deal would be waved through quickly. As well as negotiating and drafting the transaction docs, the team had to submit more than two dozen regulatory filings in about 33 countries to satisfy insurance, financial services and competition regulators.

Constant dialogue between ENSafrica and regulators meant that any obstacles were swiftly swept aside. The firm also had to ensure regulators and government officials were comfortable with how the deal would impact the insurance and reinsurance markets in the relevant jurisdictions once it was completed.

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