Donia El-Mazghouny

Practice Areas

Donia is the founder and managing partner of Mazghouny & Co. She specialises in energy law, with a focus on energy and power agreements, and regularly advises clients on the development, financing and acquisition of energy and infrastructure projects in Egypt. She further advises on transactional matters, corporate and commercial agreements, joint ventures, corporate structuring, and labour matters notably in the energy and power, manufacturing and services fields. She has recently advised on the first green hydrogen and green ammonia projects being developed in Egypt, and advised sponsors on the issuance of the first green project bonds in Egypt worth USD 334.5 million.

Career

Prior to launching Mazghouny & Co, Donia was a partner with a tier 1 law firm in Cairo, where she headed the Energy & Projects team.

Professional Memberships

Donia is the Power Law Committee Liaison Officer – Arab Regional Forum of the International Bar Association (IBA), and a member of the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN).

Publications

Donia has authored several chapters on the energy and renewables regulations in Egypt, published by The Law Review, Lexology, and ICLG, among others.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Egypt

Languages Spoken

Arabic, English, French, and Italian

Clients

Selected clients include: Amarenco, AP Moller, EDF Renouvelables, Elsewedy Electric, Empower New Energy, Engazaat Development, Engie, Globeleq, Indra Sistemas, juwi, Salcef, Scatec, and Voltalia

Work Highlights

- Advising Norwegian energy and infrastructure company Scatec on its 1 million tonnes/year green ammonia project in the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Egypt, with participation from The Sovereign Fund of Egypt and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company.

- Advising Scatec on its partnership with Fertiglobe, Orascom Construction, and The Sovereign Fund of Egypt for the development of a 100MW electrolyser to produce green hydrogen for use by an ammonia manufacturing facility in Ain Sokhna, Egypt.

- Acting as local legal advisor to Scatec in connection with the refinancing of the non-recourse project debt for 6 solar power plants in Benban, Egypt, with a total capacity of 380 MW, through the issuance of 19-year USD 334.5 million investment-grade non-recourse Green Project Bonds, which benefit from a Climate Bond certificate from the Climate Bond Initiative.

- Acting as legal counsel to the Benban Solar Developers Association (BSDA) in connection with the EGP 1.6 billion settlement of the Cost Sharing Agreement (CSA) cost overrun dispute with the State-owned Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), and drafting and negotiating the settlement agreement on behalf of all 32 Benban project developers.

- Acting as legal advisor to Amarenco with respect to the acquisition of a stake in the portfolio of leading local Cairo-based solar company SolarizEgypt, specialised in the financing, design, installation, and commissioning of PV solar power plants.

- Advising juwi on the construction of world’s largest solar hybrid project at the Centamin off-grid gold mine in Egypt, with a capacity of 36 MW bi-facial solar and 7.5 MW battery-energy storage system.

- Advising the Italian developer Italgen on its negotiations with the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) and EETC in connection with the development of 320 MW wind power project under the merchant scheme in the Gulf of Suez, converted into a BOO project; and advising Italgen on the USD 18 million settlement to exit from the project reached with NREA and EETC.

- Advising Intro Utilities, Intro Group‘s sustainable power and utilities arm, with respect to its 15-year energy supply project with the National Company for Maize Products, a subsidiary of Cairo 3A, and a leading company in the agri commodities market in Egypt, consisting in a BOT co-generation unit to supply NCMP with its entire 14 MW electricity demand and most of its thermal energy needs.

Personal

Avid reader visual and arts appreciator.

Education

Awards