Ashraf H Z Elibrachy

Practice Areas

Ashraf Elibrachy is the founder and senior partner of I&P. He has over 25 years of experience in representing local and multinational corporations and financial institutions in complex and cross-border business transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestures, conventional and Islamic finance, equity and debt capital markets.

“Ashraf Elibrachy is an excellent lawyer, all rounded sharp minded, more of a business person” “He doesn’t get himself stuck in legal issues; he sees a bigger picture” ILFR 1000

Throughout his career, Ashraf has been at the forefront of the banking and finance activities in Egypt, and has a longstanding track record in advising major banks and financial institutions including City Group, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Deutsche Bank, the International Finance Corporation, Islamic Development Bank, Société Générale, Arab International Bank, Piraeus Bank, and the National Bank of Egypt.

Ashraf regularly advises on bilateral and syndicated loans, mezzanine lending, acquisition and bid finance, asset finance, project finance, real estate finance, debt restructuring and refinancing, multicurrency and cross-border financing, financial lease, in addition to securities and collateral issues. He also advises on debt capital markets transactions including convertible bonds, high yield bonds, medium term notes, credit-linked notes, equity-linked notes and commercial paper programs, in addition to derivative transactions.

Further, Ashraf has significant experience in bank acquisitions including advising Piraeus Bank S.A. on its acquisition of Egyptian Commercial Bank S.A.E., Union National Bank on its acquisition of Alexandria Commercial and Maritime Bank S.A.E., and HSBC on its bidding for the acquisition of Egyptian American Bank S.A.E., in addition to handling the merger of Credit Lyonnais into Credit Agricole forming Calyon Egypt (currently Credit Agricole-Egypt S.A.E.).

Moire generally, besides advising his client on the day to day corporate work, Ashraf also has extensive experience in multijurisdictional and complex M&A transactions, and is always called upon by leading intuitions for structuring and implementing the most challenging and innovative deals including the USD 1.41 billion acquisition of Egyptian Fertilizers Company by Abraaj Capital and most recently, the merger between Wind Telecom SpA and VimplCom Ltd. creating the world’s sixth-largest mobile operator, worth around USD 23 billion and with 174 million mobile subscribers. The deal is valued at approximately USD 6.5 billion and involved share swap, demerger and carve-out of certain assets, corporate restructuring, and refinancing of existing debt amounting to USD 2.7 billion.

Ashraf has an in-depth knowledge across a wide range of industries including telecommunication, banking and financial services, oil and gas, automotive, agriculture, real estate, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, technology and IT, energy, cement, hotel management and E-commerce.

Ashraf was named as “one of the six leading corporate lawyers practicing in Egypt” by Middle East Business Intelligence and was described by Chambers Global as a “well-known and highly respected figure in the market who often appears on major deals”.