Hussein Baxter

HUSSEIN BAXTER advises on a wide range of corporate matters, including private and public mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, complex restructurings and special situations, corporate reorganizations, and general corporate advisory work. He is particularly adept at advising on high-value, cross-border transactions.

He has a breadth of experience advising across a number of sectors, including financial services, insurance, technology, healthcare and pharma, energy, automotive, and food and beverage.

He focuses on advising large foreign companies and regional investors investing in the Middle East and North Africa as well as internationally, including sovereign wealth funds, financial sponsors, multinational corporations, listed companies, and family offices.

He trained and qualified in London and practiced there with some of the leading international firms prior to moving to the UAE. He is fluent in both written and spoken Arabic. He has been nominated as a rising star across the Middle East in Chambers and IFLR.

Hussein’s recent experience includes advising:

• Tahweel Integrated Company, a Saudi Arabian leader in the cast pallet-wrap stretch film market known for delivering tailored industrial solutions across Asia and Europe, on its SAR 3 billion business combination with Nile Investment Limited.
• A global investment firm on its joint venture with a global sovereign investor to invest in, and secure the supply of, strategic metals and minerals.
• Multiple sovereign wealth funds on strategic transactions in the Middle East and across Europe, including acquisitions, disposals, co-investments, and capitalizing and restructuring their portfolio companies.
• Arcapita, a global alternative investment firm, on a number of their major M&A transactions in the Middle East since 2020, including its recent acquisition of one of the leading providers of verification services for skilled workers in the GCC.
• A leading food and beverages company listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on a number of its major recent M&A transactions, including the acquisition of:
  • a 60% stake in an Egyptian snacks company;
  • a 100% stake in a regional confectionary and healthy foods products business;
  • a supermajority stake in an Egyptian frozen processed chicken and beef products company; and
  • an 80% stake in one of the leading regional producers of frozen and chilled processed protein products.
• Emirates Central Cooling Services Corporation (Empower), one of the world’s largest district cooling services providers, on its acquisition, following winning competition auctions, of:
  • 19 district cooling assets in the UAE from Nakheel; and
  • a long-term concession to operate and maintain the district cooling systems of Dubai International Airport.
• AlSeha Holding Company on the sale of its stake in the UAE company NAS Neuron Health Services, a leading provider of outsourced medical claims processing services in the GCC, to a leading U.S.-based Fortune 500 company.
• A major Middle Eastern bank on the sale of a 60% stake in its payment business, which resulted in an implied valuation of the business that was sold of US$1.15 billion.
• A private hospitals group on its acquisition of assets and the operational merger of hospitals and medical units in Egypt.
• A major manufacturing corporation on the international aspects of the 47-country “carve-out” sale of its Valves & Controls business for $3.15 billion.
• A leading international bank on the carving out of its retail and commercial banking operations from its investment banking arm, the largest ever bank restructuring, which took over five years to implement.
• A major European bank on its restructuring program, involving the re-organization of 50 companies, and the carving out of its retail and commercial banking operations from its investment banking arm.
• A major European bank on its acquisition, following a competitive auction, of a total balance sheet of €10.3 billion of assets and certain liabilities from another European bank and its capital raise by way of a rights issue and private placement.

*The above includes matters handled prior to joining Sidley.