Mona Zulficar

Practice Areas

Banking & Finance (Egypt) - "Guru of Banking Law"

Corporate/M&A (Egypt)

Career

Founding partner and Chairperson, Mona Zulficar overseas the performance and business development of Zulficar and Partners Law Firm, a leading law firm in Egypt. A practicing attorney for more than forty years, she is a specialist in major restructuring, banking, project finance and M&A transactions and has been consistently ranked by international legal directories as the leading and eminent Egyptian lawyer in banking, finance and M & A.

Professional Memberships

Amcham Egypt

British Egyptian Business Association >BEBA

French Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Egypt > CCIFE

Publications

Played and continues to play a key role in developing and drafting new economic legislation as adviser, drafting expert or a member of national drafting committees on important laws, such as the Investment Law, the Telecom Law, the Companies and Capital Market Laws, the Banking Law and the Economic Courts Law, as well as the Special Economic Zones Law which she drafted by assignment from the Government in 2002. She served as a member of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Egypt and has been directly involved in the institutional and regulatory reform program of the banking sector during the period 2003-2011. Most recently, she has served as Vice President of the Constitutional Commission of 50 and played a key role in drafting the 2014 Egyptian Constitution.

Clients

She is particularly recognized, locally and internationally, for handling ground breaking and precedent transactions. These include the first Egyptian three BOOT Power Plants in 1998 and 2002, the first GSM Telecom Concession to MobiNil in 1998, the first commercial aircraft mortgage financing for EgyptAir in 1989, the first GDR issue and listing on the LSE for CIB in 1996, the first subordinated bond issuance for MobiNil in 2005, the first PPP for Orasqualia related to the Cairo Wastewater Project in 2010, the first demerger of Orascom Telecom (OT) in 2012, the first dual listing for Orascom Construction on NASDAQ Dubai and the EGX in March 2015, and more recently in 2016 the first multi billion USD Repo by the Central Bank of Egypt representing a group of international banks, and in 2017 the first FiT Program for the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) to develop and finance the largest solar park in the world in Benban near Aswan comprising 32 projects for USD 2.2 billion and approximately 1600 MGW, which is the award winning project by the World Bank and Thompson Reuters among others.

She handled many large M&A transactions over the years, including the mega transaction of OCI in 2008 relating to the sale of Orascom Building Materials Holding to Lafarge, for approximately USD 13 billion in addition to USD 2 billion of assumed debt. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, she handled the sale of Citibank’s retail business to CIB, the acquisition of Pireaus Bank by ABK and the sale of Barclays Bank to AWB. Futher in 2020/2021, she assisted the M&A team at Z&P to close the sale of Banque Audi Egypt to FAB and the acquisition of Bank Blom Egypt by Bank ABC Bahrain, as well as handling the ground breaking precedent of the legal and financial restructuring of Arab Investment Bank (AIB), and the acquisition by EFG Hermes Holding, SAE and The Sovereign Fund of Egypt of 76% of the shares of the Bank through a capital increase to EGP 5 Billion. In 2022, she supported the merger of Blom Bank Egypt into Bank ABC Egypt, which successfully closed at the end of December 2022, and lead the Firm’s team representing the Banks in the first issuance of greend bonds for $370 million on behalf of six Scatec solar energy subsidiaries operating in Benban, Asswan. In 2023, she led the negotiations on behalf of the The Sovereign Fund of Egypt in the landmark transaction of restructuring and sale of 51% of the newly established company owning the 7 historic hotels of Egypt to a consortium of Egyptian and Emirati investors. In 2023 and 2024, she led the Firm’s team negotiating team with the Banks in Egypt on behalf of QH Holding to finalize an exceptional settlement and a restructuring of outstanding banking debts under a major syndication for over $300 million as well as other indebtedness. In 2024, she led the Firm’s team in the landmark transaction of Arab African International Bank issuance of the First Sustainable Development Bonds Program, including the negotiation of complex Subscription Agreements with each of IFC, EBRD and BII, which closed in December 2024.

Industry Sector Expertise

Banking and Finance

Education

Awards