Corporate

Acquisition of a 19% stake in a power generation facility in the Sultanate of Oman. This facility was the first fully privately funded project company building, owning and operating a power generation and transmission facility in the interior of Oman.

Disposal of a 100% shareholding stake in a large tertiary training institute regionally based from the founding locally based family business owners to an international investor specialising in the owning and operating of educational institutions.

Sale of 100% stake in the region's largest building and infrastructure maintenance and cleaning operation specialising in cleaning and maintenance of high rise structures.

Joint ventures

Currently acting for one of the region's largest real estate development companies, drafting and renegotiation of their joint venture with another government owned developer for the development of a 2.8 million sqm land area into a residential and commercial mixed used development.

Sean advised upon and implemented the complete restructuring of the presence in the United Arab Emirates of a major global "high end" retailer.  This included providing detailed advice on the termination of existing distributorship and agency arrangements which was followed by appropriate joint venture arrangements with local partners, drafting and negotiating all agreements, advising on all risks and the mitigation thereof.

Represented the international promoter of a gold refining facility in its joint venture arrangements with a regional partner.

Foreign direct investment

Acted for a number of hotel owners in respect of hotel management agreements which include the Chedi Hotel in Muscat, Kempinski Hotel in Dubai in addition to another multi-hotel development in Dubai and the Inter-Continental Hotel in Muscat.

Represented several "global brands" on the negotiation and finalising of franchise deals and distributorship deals in the region.

Currently advising potential distributor for one of Europe's largest alcohol and tobacco producers and branch owners on the negotiation of joint venture/distributorship arrangements for the GCC region.

Currently representing a global IT solutions/software entity on the termination of regional agency/distributorship relationships and restructuring of their various regional presences. This includes undertaking in depth due diligence into all risk issues, advising upon mitigation strategies plus the most appropriate new structures to adopt in the GCC going forward.

Represented the promoters of a new real estate investment fund entity in the structuring and establishment of their new entity in Dubai and then within the various real estate investments since its formation. This has included numerous JV structures.

Representing an Asian investment group on an acquisition of a large education group in Dubai which includes numerous real estate assets.

Projects and infrastructure

In-country due diligence and advising our client (a major development company) on multi-sector development projects to upgrade Gambia’s tourism and internal revenue collection sectors.

Advising the client (developer) in matter of Omani law, assisting in negotiations with the Government and in all corporate and contractual aspects regarding a major tourism development project.

Acted for developers of liquid chemical handling facility and tank farm project. This project included the drafting and negotiation of land access agreements, negotiation and drafting of revamped port regulations related to land corridors, tank farm management agreements and liquid jetty handling facility management agreements.

Acted for developers of a container terminal handling facility including negotiation and drafting of sub-Usufruct Agreement, container handling services agreement with port operator and all corporate structure and joint venture agreements.

Acted for the developers of a large oil refinery project in Iraq.  Included providing detailed corporate structuring advice, drafting of original MOU with the Government, land lease agreements, tolling agreement, concession agreement and related documents.

Consumer

Currently representing a European ice cream manufacturer on their Middle East franchise arrangements. This includes drafting and negotiating franchise agreements, know-how licence agreements and trade mark licence agreements.

Represented the local distributor/bottler for a large global soft drinks manufacturer on the restructuring and re-negotiation of the bottling and distributorship operations in a GCC country. Providing detailed advice on risks, litigation strategies, termination of existing relationships and the structuring of new relationships plus the transition process.

Represented in-country franchisee of a large global fast food outlet on the re-negotiation and restructuring of their "in-country" franchise deals/joint venture operations. Included all strategic advice and implementation of the transition process.

Represented several "global brands" on the negotiation and finalising of franchise deals, distributorship deals in the region.

Hotels and leisure

Acted for a number of hotel owners in respect of hotel management agreements for hotels including the Chedi Hotel in Muscat, Kempinski Hotel in Dubai, a multi-hotel development in Dubai and the Inter-Continental Hotel in Muscat.

Government and public sector

Supporting numerous public companies on internal governance, compliance and regulatory issues.

Providing ongoing advice on corporate, commercial, corporate governance, company secretarial and regulatory matters for several public companies.

Engaged by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Sultanate of Oman to completely review and redraft the Oman Commercial Companies Law. This involved a detailed and comprehensive review of all existing commercial companies legislations in the Sultanate of Oman and then the complete redrafting of the entire law.

Conducted a number of internal investigations for corporate entities on breaches of corporate governance and fraud.

Conducted an internal investigation on behalf of a Government regulator into alleged insider dealing activities, fraud and breaches of corporate governance codes for a public company in the insurance and financial services sector.

Banks and banking

Sean led teams in the IPOs for the following:

Sahara Hospitality SAOG. This was a project specific SPV set up to build, own and operate the concession (offered by Petroleum Development Oman) for oilfield contractor accommodation and services facility.

IPO for Salalah Port Services Company SAOG, one of the region's most efficient and largest transhipment container port operations.

BP Oman's IPO (Downstream operations of BP in Oman).

IPOs for a number of the power generation privately financed project companies in the Sultanate of Oman.

The IPO for the SPV owning the Chedi Hotel in Muscat.

UAE

Sean advised upon and implemented the complete restructuring of the presence in the United Arab Emirates of a major global "high end" retailer. This included providing detailed advice on the termination of existing distributorship and agency arrangements and then establishing appropriate joint venture arrangements with local partners, drafting and negotiating all agreements, advising on all risks and the mitigation thereof.

Representing Asian investment group on an acquisition of a large education group in Dubai which includes numerous real estate assets.

Disposal of a 100% shareholding stake in a large tertiary training institute regionally based from the founding locally based family business owners to an international investor specialising in the owning and operating of educational institutions.

Sale of 100% stake in the region's largest building and infrastructure maintenance and cleaning operation, specialising in cleaning and maintenance of high rise structures.

Represented the international promoter of a gold refining facility in its joint venture arrangements with a regional partner.

Acted for a number of hotel owners in respect of hotel management agreements for such hotels as the Kempinski Hotel in Dubai, Chedi Hotel in Muscat as well as another multi-hotel development in Dubai and the Inter-Continental Hotel in Muscat.

Represented the promoters of a new real estate investment fund entity in the structuring and setting up of their new entity in Dubai and then in the various real estate investments since formation. This has included numerous joint venture structures.

Currently acting for one of the region's largest real estate development companies, drafting and renegotiating of their joint venture with another government owned developer for the development of a 2.8 million sqm land area into a residential and commercial mixed used development.

Oman

Major tourism development project

Advising our client (developer) in matter of Omani Law, assisting in negotiations with the Government and in all corporate and contractual aspects.

Acquisition of a 19% stake in a power generation facility in the Sultanate of Oman.  This facility was the first fully privately funded project company building, owning and operating a power generation and transmission facility in the interior of Oman.

Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Sultanate of Oman

Reviewed and redrafted the Oman Commercial Companies Law.  This involved a detailed and comprehensive review of all existing commercial companies legislations in the Sultanate of Oman and then the complete redrafting of the entire law.

Major hotel owners

Acted for a number of hotel owners in respect of hotel management agreements for hotels including the Chedi Hotel in Muscat, Kempinski Hotel in Dubai, a multi-hotel development in Dubai and the Inter-Continental Hotel in Muscat.

Sean led teams in the IPOs for the following:

Sahara Hospitality SAOG

This was a project specific SPV set up to build, own and operate the concession (offered by Petroleum Development Oman) for oilfield contractor accommodation and services facility.

IPO for Salalah Port Services Company SAOG

One of the region's most efficient and largest transhipment container port operations.

BP Oman's IPO

Downstream operations of BP in Oman.

The IPO for Shell Oman Marketing

Downstream operations of Shell in Oman.

IPOs for a number of the power generation privately financed project companies in the Sultanate of Oman.

The IPO for the SPV owning the Chedi Hotel in Muscat.

More: Oman