Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) advised Invest Bank P.S.C. on its capital restructuring plan, which included the provision of a guarantee by the Government of Sharjah for a certain loan and asset portfolio, a step that is the first of its kind in the UAE. The transaction entailed several complex and challenging regulatory steps, including the issuance of new shares by way of a rights issue, leveraging the (back then) newly introduced commercial companies law (“CCL”) which allowed companies in the UAE to issue shares at a discounted par value, obtaining exemptions from the UAE Cabinet from the applicability of certain provisions of the CCL and numerous discussions and negotiations with the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).

The Freshfields team advising on the transaction was led by partner Pervez Akhtar. Associate Khaled Al-Assaf lead the execution of the transaction with the supervision of counsel Abdallah Maher.

Advice on the guarantee agreement was provided by partner Patrick Cichy, principal associate, Jan Biermann, and associate, Simon Schulte (all Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), who have a track record of advising on similar capital solutions which were implemented in Europe.