Bennani & Associés > Abidjan, Ivory Coast > Firm Profile

Bennani & Associés Offices

Bennani & Associés
ABIDJAN COCODY-VALLON
IMMEUBLE SAYEGH, THIRD FLOOR - SUITE NO 2
22 BP 455 ABIDJAN 22
22 BP 455
Ivory Coast

Bennani & Associés > The Legal 500 Rankings

Ivory Coast > Leading firms Tier 2

Bennani & Associés' Ivorian office leverages the firm's wider presence across the continent, especially in North Africa and Francophone Africa, to provide legal advice to a solid client base of international corporations. The group is also adept at handling financial sector matters within the Ivorian market. Assemian Faustin Kouakou leads the team, and has an excellent reputation for advising international entities on acquisitions of Ivorian businesses, as well as assisting with commercial matters.

Practice head(s):

Assemian Faustin Kouakou

Testimonials

‘Assemian Faustin Kouakou is responsive, smart and reliable. The team works on a very collaborative basis, and speaks both English and French well.’

‘Bennani & Associés is our go-to firm in the Ivory Coast. ’

‘Bennati & Associés, has a great team of legal minds with one of highest expertise in Corporate and M&A deals in Africa.’

‘Assemian Kouakou is knowledgeable, responsive and accurate in his approach. ’

‘The team is extremely responsive, professional, and client-minded. It delivers top-notch advice in a timely fashion.’

‘Assemian Faustin Kouakou is always willing to assist, extremely responsive and easy to work with.’

Key clients

Argus France

Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronof LLP

China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Co, Ltd

CGIAR System Organization (Africa Rice)

CFAO Group

Engie Group

JUMIA Group

Ovex Pty (Ltd)

Paystack

Salama – Islamic Arab Insurance Company PSC

United Bank For Africa Plc (Nigeria)

Vivo Energy plc

GNA Assurances Ivory Coast

FINAFRICA (Duval Group)

New Digital Africa

Work highlights

  • Advising French multinational conglomerate CFAO Group on its acquisition of five Leader Price stores in Abidjan.
  • Advising German multinational automotive group Volkswagen AG on data protection issues concerning radio equipment and user manuals in its cars.
  • Advising Duval Group on its acquisition of Senegal-based microfinance company Crédit Solidaire d’Afrique.

Bennani & Associés > Firm Profile

Firm overview: Founded in 2004, Bennani & Associes is a leading independent pan-African firm with offices in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire and now also Democratic Republic of Congo. If offers cutting-edge business law expertise to listed and unlisted companies as well as public entities and international law firms active in the region. In each market, the firm has a particular expertise in representing foreign investors across a wide range of complex issues, including:

  • General corporate law
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Joint ventures and partnerships
  • Corporate restructuring
  • Competition/antitrust and other regulatory advice
  • Employment law
  • Financing
  • Commercial litigation and arbitration

Industries served: The firm has extensive experience in representing a range of major industry sector, including (but not limited to):

  • Aerospace
  • Automotive
  • Chemicals
  • Consumer electronics
  • Energy
  • Engineering and construction
  • Financial Services
  • Food
  • Oil and gas
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Private equity
  • Telecommunications
  • Transport

Recent highlights:

  • Antitrust counsel to Alstom on filing of its €6.2bn merger with Bombardier (Morocco)
  • Counsel to Sage Global Automotive S.R.L. on its acquisition of a 30% stake and voting rights in the Moroccan company, ERT Automotive Morocco Sarl-Au (Morocco)
  • Counsel to Bunzl on Moroccan aspects of its acquisition of a 100% equity interest in Proin Pinilla, S.L., and Protec & Marti, S.L. (Morocco)
  • Counsel to global investment management firm Carlyle in a $404m bankruptcy litigation procedure against the SAMIR refinery (Morocco)
  • Counsel to Representing Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Morocco in commercial arbitration against its former distributor (Morocco)
  • Counsel to Facebook on data privacy and payment instruments for new products (Algeria)
  • Counsel to Hyundai on a new vehicle manufacturing joint venture with Tahkout Manufacturing Company (Algeria)
  • Counsel to Evatherm AG in successful defence against penalty claims relating to a turnkey salt production plant (Algeria)
  • Counsel to Enel Green Power on regulatory review of 5,000MW of photovoltaic and wind farm projects (Algeria)
  • Counsel to Delfingen Industry in the acquisition of a 100% shareholding in Schlemmer group’s Tunisian subsidiary (Tunisia)
  • Counsel to Volkswagen regarding merger clearance of its joint venture with Rimac (Tunisia)
  • Counsel to Salama – Islamic Arab Insurance Company PSC on the sale of its Senegalese subsidiary, Salama Senegal, to Groupe Duval (Côte d’Ivoire)
  • Counsel to Paystack Nigeria on regulatory authorisation of the company’s activities (Côte d’Ivoire)

Staff Figures

Firm-wide : 53
At this office : 5

Languages

French
English
Arabic

Other

Other offices : Algiers (Algeria)
Other offices : Casablanca (Morocco)
Other offices : Kinshasa (DRC)
Other offices : Tunis (Tunisia)