Ahmed Shehata

Ahmed Shehata

Associate
Helmy, Hamza and Partners

Biography

Ahmed Shehata is a senior associate at Helmy, Hamza & Partners, Baker McKenzie Cairo. He practices in banking, finance and projects, with a special focus on various forms of debt finance, loan facilities and debt capital markets. He has experience in drafting facility agreements, security documents and other finance and project development documents (including offtake and grid arrangements). Ahmed has advises lenders, commercial banks, multilateral financial institutions and export credit agencies, as well as developers and sponsors, during all stages of the structuring, development and financing of major projects. He obtained a B.A in Law with honors from Cairo University's Faculty of Law in 2016. He later went on to achieve a Master 1 in International and European Business Law from Universite Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) in 2015 and Professional Master 2 in Banking and Financial Law from the same university in 2017. Ahmed was admitted to the Egyptian Bar Association in 2016.

Practice Focus

Ahmed practices in Banking, Finance and Projects with a special focus on various forms of debt finance, loan facilities and debt capital markets.

Representative Legal Matters

  • Acting for AMEA Power on (i) the development and financing of two renewable projects in Egypt with a capacity of 1000 megawatts and value of USD 1.1 billion; and (ii)  the development and financing of a 500MW solar plant in Aswan and a 500MW wind farm in Gulf of Suez. (Won PFI Awards' Global ESG Deal of the Year 2022).

  • Acted for Banque Misr and Arab African International Bank (AAIB) as lenders on a real estate facility granted to Al Alamia for Real Estate Investment, a fully owned subsidiary of Hassan Allam Group company. The two banks signed the loan documentation of EGP 3,050,000,000 on 21 December 2022 specifically for the development of Swan Lake Residences project which is one of Al Alamia integrated residential projects in New Cairo.

  • Acted as Egyptian law and English law counsel to the National Bank of Egypt as a facility agent and a syndicate of 24 banks, in relation to extending an EGP 8 billion financing to Evergrow for Specialized Fertilizers, a leading local and regional company in the specialized fertilizers field.

  • Acting for a consortium of sponsors in negotiating and drafting their project documents in relation to a plant in the field of rolling stocks with the National Authority for Tunnels.

  • Acting for an investment fund in their project development with the Egyptian Unified Authority.

  • Advising a Global Contractor in its arrangements with the New Urban Communities Authority.

  • Acted for Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) in connection with 200 MW BOO solar PV project in Kom Ombo, Aswan.

  • Acted for an Emirati Bank in its Letter of Credit facility transaction to subsidiary of an Egyptian company for its procurement agreement.

  • Acted for an English Bank in relation to its Total Return Swap transaction with a national bank in Egypt.

  • Acted for the Lenders in their amendment of the existing financing of an Egyptian company after the settlement of the dispute between the Egyptian Company and the Egyptian Government.

Professional Honors

  • Ranked as "Rising Star" - Banking and Project Finance, IFLR1000, 2022

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • Egyptian Bar Association

Admissions

  • England & Wales (Solicitor)~United Kingdom (2023)
  • Egypt (2016)

Education

  • University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) (Professional Master 2, Banking and Financial Law) (2017)
  • Cairo University (Egyptian Bachelor of Law, with honors - Ranked 9th) (2016)
  • University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) (Master 1, International and European Business Law) (2015)

Languages

  • Arabic
  • English
  • French
  • Spanish