Sanam Majid

A majority of Sanam’s work has entailed advising and structuring cross border transactions and she has experience across a range of industries and product areas encompassing conventional and Islamic finance, derivatives and structured products, aviation, retail/automotive and construction.  Sanam’s approach is to factor in business and commercial needs when providing legal advice and her experience across different sectors and geographies enables her to provide strategic and solution-oriented input. 

BANKING AND FINANCE
 

• Advising a US venture debt financer in relation a USD 20 million Islamic secured borrowing base facility agreement advanced to a KSA based start-up in the automotive space.
   

• Advising on the secured financing of the largest private acquisition in Dubai of commercial real estate.
   

• Advising the mandated lead arrangers on the EUR 16.1 billion acquisition facility for Schaeffler KG to acquire Continental AG which incorporated very complex pricing and acquisition strategies and post the financial crisis of 2008 acted on restructuring the debt and the uptake of security across 9 jurisdictions.
   

• Advising on multiple aircraft financings and novations for lessees such as Emirates, Swiss and Volga Dnepr Airlines, lessors such as United Technologies Corporation (a Pratt & Whitney subsidiary) and financiers such as Citibank, HSBC and a large Middle Eastern bank which have utilised various leasing structures including finance leases, operating leases, Japanese operating leases, Islamic leases and export credit agency financing.
   

• Advising Istithmar PJSC, an investment arm of the Dubai government, in relation to its USD 285 million financing for the acquisition of Inchcape Shipping Services (an international shipping conglomerate).

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DERIVATIVES AND STRUCTURED PRODUCTS

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• Advising on variable funding note structures (tax optimized loan structures) ranging between USD 25 million to USD 200 million with hedge funds and negotiating documentation for securing the loans on hedge fund securities and cash accounts.
   

• Drafting index rules and advising on key risks for retail distribution for algorithmic proprietary and dynamic managed indices/products referencing different asset classes including equity, commodity and fund underlyings. 
   

• Advising on and drafting bespoke structured notes and OTC contracts synthetically linked to equity, commodity and fund underlyings.

COMMERCIAL
 

• Advising on the set up of Ounass, a new luxury omnichannel brand in the UAE and on Nisnass a mid range brand in relation to cybersecurity, PCI DSS compliance, drafting T&Cs and privacy policy, creating marketplace and concession agreement precedents, and negotiating with payment gateway providers.
   

• Advising on and negotiating e-commerce franchise agreement with Macys Inc in relation to Bloomingdale’s middle eastern omnichannel set up.   
   

• Advising in conjunction with PWC on the corporate re-structuring of the e-commerce and bricks and mortar retail business to account for the impact of tax, VAT and transfer pricing across the GCC.  Entailed understanding the business needs, the existing operations/systems and reconciling with any key tax, financial and legal risks to create a recommended structure and identifying any red flags for future changes being made to business operations.
   

• Advising on multiple franchise and licensing agreements, distribution agreements, procurement contracts both creating RFPs and tendering, consultancy contracts, SaaS and other IT contracts, commercial contracts, manufacturing agreements and outsourcing arrangements.
   

CORPORATE 
 

• Advising on a JV with a retail developer in the UAE and the investment into a retail development fund.
   

• Advising on the acquisition of a Middle Eastern insurance company.

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CONSTRUCTION
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• Creating bespoke FIDIC based construction contract for large scale fit out contracts as well as a framework agreement for smaller scale line store fit outs. 
   

• Advising on strategy and solutions in relation to existing FIDIC based contracts where issues had arisen with the builder or one of the sub-contractors.