Sudanese Commercial Law Office (SCLO) is Sudan's leading M&A law firm, named Best Corporate and M&A Law Firm in Sudan at Acquisition International's 2018 Global Excellence Awards. We advise buyers, sellers, and their international counsel on acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, and corporate restructurings involving Sudanese companies and assets. Our clients include Magic Circle law firms, multinational pharmaceutical companies, and international investors executing cross-border transactions in Sudan. Wael Abdin is the author of the Sudan Merger Control chapter in the LexisNexis Merger Control publication — the authoritative international reference for merger control practitioners across jurisdictions.

SCLO's M&A practice covers the full transactional lifecycle. At the due diligence stage, we conduct comprehensive legal due diligence covering corporate title, real property, intellectual property, employment, contracts, regulatory licences, and sector-specific compliance. At the transaction documentation stage, we draft and negotiate share purchase agreements, asset purchase agreements, shareholders agreements, warranties and indemnities schedules, and completion mechanics. At the regulatory clearance stage, we manage all interactions with the Investment Authority of Sudan, the Competition and Anti-Monopoly Commission, and any sector regulator whose consent is required for the transaction to close. At the post-completion stage, we handle all Sudanese-law formalities including transfer of company shares, real property titles, licences, and trademark registrations.

Among our recent mandates: lead Sudanese counsel to Hikma Pharmaceuticals plc on its acquisition of Ellie Pharmaceuticals, one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in Sudan — covering due diligence, regulatory clearance, and transfer of over one hundred trademark registrations. Local counsel to a leading Magic Circle law firm on a major telecommunications sector acquisition in Sudan, covering full legal due diligence, competition law analysis, telecom regulatory clearance, corporate finance, employment, and company law. We have also structured and completed the incorporation of a Sudanese company with 100% foreign ownership — a precedent-setting outcome giving the foreign owner the right to distribute products in Sudan independently of a local partner.

Sudan's Competition and Anti-Monopoly Act applies to transactions that affect market concentration in Sudan. International deal teams frequently overlook this — SCLO conducts a competition law screen at the start of every M&A mandate to ensure no notification obligation is missed.