About Abdallah Maher

Abdallah is a member of our MENA Global Transactions Group. He has over a decade of experience advising financial institutions and sponsors on public and private M&A transactions in the MENA region.

Abdallah's practice takes special interest in financial institutions, fintech and payment solutions sectors, having advised on most of the recent landmark transactions in the MENA region in these sectors.

Abdallah is native Arabic speaker and is dual qualified (in Egypt and New York, US).

Recent work

• First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC on the carve out of, and sale of a 60% stake in, its payment business, Magnati, to Brookfield Business Partners L.P. The sale has resulted in an implied valuation for Magnati of USD 1.15 billion. Magnati is the market leader for government solutions in the UAE and among the top-two players across direct acquiring, prepaid issuing, and issuer processing.
• Solutions by stc on its acquisition of Giza Systems SAE, an Egypt head-quartered systems integrator with operations in over 10 jurisditions and client-base spanning 25 jurisdictions. 
• The Emirate of Dubai on the carve-out of the Emirate's tolling system (Salik) into a public joint stock company,  raising AED4 billion of debt and the listing of the company on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). 
• Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company PJSC on the primary issuance and private placement of shares in, and the subsequent listing of, AD Ports Group PJSC.
• Kuwait Finance House on its cross-border acquisition of Ahli United Bank in Bahrain. The deal marked the first acquisition by way of share swap between two different jurisdictions in the region and involved as a result heavy coordination with regulators in both Kuwait and Bahrain.
• *The Kuwait Capital Market Authority on the application to join the International Organisation of Securities Commissions.
• First Abu Dhabi Bank on its US$660 million acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Bank Audi SAE, Bank Audi’s subsidiary in Egypt, in addition to the outstanding shareholders’ debt.
• Bank ABC on its acquisition of all the shares of BLOM BANK Egypt from BLOM BANK for c. $427 million. 
• Noor Bank in relation to the 100 per cent acquisition of Noor Bank by Dubai Islamic Bank.
• First Gulf Bank on its merger with National Bank of Abu Dhabi creating the largest bank in the MENA region with $175bn of assets and a combined market capitalisation of approximately $29.1bn. 
• Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic on UAE law aspects of the IPO of Network International. The IPO is London’s biggest IPO of 2019 with the IPO price giving the company a market value of £2.18bn. As part of the IPO Mastercard made a $300 million cornerstone investment in the IPO and Network International and Mastercard additionally entered into a strategic partnership to support and accelerate the development of electronic payments in Africa and the Middle East.
• Gulf Capital on the acquisition of a majority stake in Geidea, the leading payment solutions business in Saudi Arabia.
• Gulf Finance House on its acquisition of a majority stake in the largest payment solutions provider in the UAE.
• Saudi National Bank on the sale of its credit cards business in the UAE.
• Tunisie Telecom on its acquisition of a 65.4 per cent stake in GO.
• *A group of investors led by Mohammed Al Abbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, on the Saudi law aspects of the acquisition of a controlling stake valued at US$1.7bnin the Kuwait-based Americana Group from Al Kharafi Family.

*Lawyer experience prior to joining Freshfields.