Gide Algiers is a key player in Algerian business life, advising on all areas of business law with teams involved in almost all major investment and disinvestment operations in the country over the past 15 years.

Active since 2003, Gide’s team in Algiers includes practitioners of Algerian and foreign nationality who combine a perfect knowledge of law and business practices in Algeria with international expertise.

Our team, supervised by partner Samy Laghouati, mainly advises international investors on the legal and tax aspects of their activities, in all business sectors and in all fields of business law, in particular in terms of acquisitions, privatisations and joint ventures, as well as major infrastructure projects.

Main areas of expertise:

• Mergers & Acquisitions / Corporate Law
• Projects (Finance & Infrastructure) & Energy
• Competition & International Trade
• Tax
• Banking & Finance
• Private Equity
• Employment
• Real Estate
• Public & Administrative Law

This firm maintains a market-leading position in Algeria, representing an impressive portfolio of clients that includes Volkswagen, ENGIE, Total, JCDecaux and Danone. The group recently advised Total on a joint venture petrochemical project with Sonatrach and remains heavily involved in several other significant energy matters in the country. Its expertise further includes public procurement, international arbitration, M&A and private equity. Sources note the firm’s ‘good team’ and say: ‘They did an excellent job. They went beyond pure legal advice to give guidance on cultural and strategic issues.’ Interviewees also point to the team’s ‘excellent client service.’
Chambers Global 2019

Experience includes:

Advising Total Raffinage & Chimie on setting up a joint venture with Sonatrach for the design, financing, construction and operation of a world class petrochemicals site (PDHPP).

Advising Verallia Packaging on the sale of all the share capital of glass packaging manufacturer Alver Spa.

Assisting and representing an Algerian project company that owns a seawater desalination plant in Algeria and its foreign shareholder as part of an ICC arbitration against two public Algerian companies on the enforcement of a desalinated water sale and purchase contract. ICC arbitration, Paris seat, Algerian law, in French.

Advising Engie on transferring the control of Touat BV, owner of a production-sharing contract.

Advising Volkswagen AG on setting up a joint venture to build an assembly plant in Algeria.

Advising Veon (formerly VimpelCom) on the disposal by Global Telecom Holding (GTH), Veon’s listed Egyptian subsidiary, to the Algerian National Investment Fund (Fonds National d’Investissement), of its 51% stake in Omnium Telecom Algérie (“Djezzy”), the leading mobile operator in Algeria, for USD 2.6 billion. This transaction led to terminating the international arbitration initiated by GTH against the Algerian State on 12 April 2012. This deal is the first and most significant corporate transaction in Algeria in terms of amounts involved (several billion dollars) and complexity.

Advising Aabar Investments PJS, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, on its partnership with the Ministry of National Defence, and the Ministry of Industry and Mines, on setting up five joint companies dedicated to the production of various types of vehicles branded “Mercedes-Benz”, throughtout the country. The technological partner of this project is a German industrial consortium composed of Daimler, Ferrostaal, Rheinmetall, MTU and Deutz.

Advising GlaxoSmithKline on the acquisition of two private companies active in the manufacturing and distribution of pharmaceutical products

Led by Samy Laghouati, the team at Gide Loyrette Nouel handles privatisations, joint ventures, acquisitions, divestments and large-scale infrastructure transactions, assisting both public bodies and foreign investors. A notable highlight was advising Total on a joint venture with Algerian state-owned oil and gas company Sonatrach. Other notable clients include Engie, Volkswagen and Sanofi.
Legal 500 EMEA 2019

This firm has experience advising significant multinational clients on M&A, compliance, antitrust work and foreign investments. The team is also frequently mandated on oil and gas transactions. Its recent work highlights include assisting Volkswagen with the setting up of a joint venture to construct an assembly plant. Clients praise the firm very highly, noting its ‘real expertise in Algerian law’ and describing it as ‘very professional, very responsive and business-oriented.’ Within his broad corporate practice, Samy Laghouati handles significant business ventures and foreign investments in Algeria. His experience also covers infrastructure transactions in the real estate and energy sectors. Clients report that ‘it is always a pleasure to work with him’ and consider him ‘an excellent lawyer.’ One peer described him as ‘very energetic and solution-minded.’
Chambers Global 2018

Gide Loyrette Nouel’s corporate lawyers are valued for their ‘excellent service’ as well as for ‘making themselves available at short notice and providing a quick turnaround time’. The team recently acted for Volkswagen on a project with Sovac and advised IPIC on regulatory issues related to its $125bn merger with Mubadala Development. Samy Laghouati has ‘excellent inside knowledge of the Algerian legal framework’.
Legal 500 EMEA 2018

Gide Loyrette Nouel is widely regarded as ‘among the best’ for energy matters in Algeria. In particular, Samy Laghouati is ‘knowledgeable and provides appropriate advice’.
Legal 500 EMEA 2017

Easily the strongest firm in the market for financial and corporate work in Algeria, the Algiers office of French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel is active on most of the country’s high end transactions.
IFLR1000 2017