David Watkins

Chairman, Africa Practice Group Slaughter and May View profile

David was born in Zimbabwe, he trained and qualified at Bowmans (previously Bowman Gilfillan) in Johannesburg, and joined Slaughter in May as a partner in 2001. David is Chairman and lead corporate partner of our Africa Practice Group Team. His principal areas of practice include mergers and acquisitions of both public and private companies, general corporate finance, equity capital markets and corporate governance. He advises clients across a range of sectors, including financial institutions, insurance, media and IEN. David returned to our London office in the summer of 2018 after seven years in our Hong Kong office. He is admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales, the Republic of Ireland and Hong Kong.

David is listed as a leading lawyer for Corporate/M&A in the 2018 editions of Chambers Asia-Pacific, IFLR 1000 Asia-Pacific, Legal 500 Asia Pacific and in the Who's Who Legal: Mergers & Acquisitions and Who’s Who Legal: Corporate Governance in Hong Kong.

Relevant experience includes:

• Allianz on its €2bn agreement with Sanlam to create the largest non-banking financial services company in Africa

• PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) on its:

  • its successful takeover of Cove Energy (Cove Energy’s assets were centred in Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania)

  • a number of regulatory and other matters in relation to PTTEP’s assets in Kenya and East Africa

• Tenaga Nasional Berhad (Tenaga) on is strategic 30% investment, through its wholly owned subsidiary Power and Energy International (Mauritius) Ltd. (PEIM), into GMR Energy Limited (GMR Energy) and the related joint venture arrangements in relation to power production in India