Ahmed El-Sharkawy
Partner
Fax
(+202) 2322 5401
Languages
Arabic, English
Ahmed El Sharkawy is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Sharkawy & Sarhan and a leading Egyptian corporate lawyer whose practice spans infrastructure projects, public procurement, finance, TMT, and M&A. Before co-founding the firm, he served as in-house counsel to a major industrial group and later as Country Legal Counsel for Citigroup in Egypt, where he handled a broad range of corporate law and financing matters. He holds an LL.M. in International Banking and Financial Law from Boston University and has been recognized by IFLR1000 as a leading lawyer in Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, and Mergers & Acquisitions.
Most recently, Ahmed advised Stonepeak on its acquisition of a majority controlling interest in Castrol from bp in a landmark transaction valued at approximately USD 10 billion, providing targeted local due diligence and strategic advice across employment, litigation, and general corporate matters. His broader transactional record includes advising on Société Générale’s USD 1.97 billion sale of its stake in National Société Générale Bank to Qatar National Bank and BNP Paribas’s USD 500 million sale of its Egyptian bank to Emirates NBD. He has also advised on strategic deals across energy, infrastructure, and technology, including General Electric’s USD 9.5 billion acquisition of Alstom’s power business, BOOT IPP-related acquisitions, a first-of-its-kind submarine telecom cable acquisition, and acquisitions involving water management, logistics, and technology assets.
Ahmed brings particularly strong infrastructure and projects experience across power, renewables, water, wastewater, transport, and port infrastructure. His work includes advising the PPP Unit in the Ministry of Finance on the New Cairo Water and Wastewater Treatment PPP, advising the World Bank and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company on the first wind farm BOO in Egypt, and advising on the Cairo-Alexandria toll road PPP framework. He has also advised the lenders under Egypt’s Feed-in Tariff program. He regularly advises developers on renewable projects including SPV incorporation, land availment, interim generation licensing, EPC, O&M, and project management issues.
His finance practice covers acquisition finance, project finance, structured finance, reserve-based lending, and Islamic finance for major international banks, DFIs, and sponsors. Representative matters include the USD 1.2 billion financing to Abraaj Capital for the acquisition of Egyptian Fertilizers Company and related USD 400 million Shari’a-compliant refinance, the USD 1 billion EAgrium petrochemicals financing, and the USD 2.5 billion refinancing for Orascom Telecom Holding. His TMT experience includes telecom financing, telecom licensing and tender work, triple-play and mobile license bids, the USD 168 million Nilesat satellite financing, and IFC’s investment in Fawry for Payment Technology. This combination of regulatory depth and commercial judgment makes him a trusted adviser on complex, high-value matters at the intersection of infrastructure, finance, technology, and cross-border M&A.
Related Sectors
Related Practice Areas
Representative Experience
Development financial institutions, including IFC, EBRD, Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank, Proparco and other international lenders on the financing of thirty (30) Solar Power Projects under phase two of the Egyptian Feed-in Tariff (FiT) program. Collectively, these projects form a massive solar energy complex in Benban, Aswan, which is expected to be the world’s biggest grid-connected solar power park upon its completion, generating up to 1.8GW of clean energy. Our work included reviewing the English law finance documents, drafting the onshore security package, negotiating the project agreements and all project aspects with the relevant governmental authorities, borrowers and multiple stakeholders.
The Ministry of Finance (with the IFC) the PPP Unit on the New Cairo Water and Wastewater Treatment PPP Projects, the latter being the only PPP project in recent Egyptian history to reach financial close.
IFC in relation to the project finance to Galaxy Chemicals (a subsidiary of Galaxy Surfactants Ltd., India) for the construction and equipping of a 60,000-mpta surfactant production plant located in the Suez Public Free Zone in Egypt.
Molinari Rail AG, Winterthur, Switzerland on negotiating a consultancy agreement with the National Authority for Tunnels in relation to a to the provision of certain consulting services relating to train sets for the greater Cairo Metro Line No. 1 (Helwan to New El – Marge).
Stonepeak on its acquisition of a 65% shareholding in Castrol from bp at an enterprise value of USD 10 billion, acting as Egyptian local counsel and providing targeted local due diligence and strategic insight across employment, litigation, and general corporate matters.
Webex that develops and sells web conferencing, video conferencing and contact center as a service application in order to provide such services in Egypt. Our scope of work included the required licenses, legal requirements and legal restrictions in relation to such services.
The company business is complicated and not common in Egypt. In addition, the Egyptian Telecommunications regulations do not provide straightforward provisions governing Webex services.
OPPO on completing a comprehensive legal research and analysis questionnaire on several aspects relating to artificial intelligence under Egyptian law. Our scope of work includes covering several laws including the Data Protection Law, Cybercrimes Law, Telecom Law and several regulations.
Panasonic on transfer impact assessment, which includes determining whether the country of the data importer provides a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU.
Numerous international and local entities including Fujitsu, ACE Insurance, Monasnto, UBS, BG Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), GoDaddy Inc, Majid Al Futtaim Group, Panasonic, Deloitte, GoDaddy Inc and CSC on various data protection matters.
Advising on the registrations / licenses / approvals needed for IBM cloud products, with special focus on the Telecommunication Law no. 10/2003, National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority’s (the “NTRA”) Framework for Establishing and Operating Data Centres and Providing Hosting and Cloud Computing Services issued in August 2021 and NTRA’s Internet of Things (IoT) Regulatory Framework.
Dubizzle Middle East on reviewing and modifying their advertising agreement template in light of Egyptian law. Our scope of work includes making several modifications to the agreement’s template to comply with Egyptian law and to avoid certain risks.
STCS for IT on behalf of its parent company (Solutions by STC), on managing the liquidation process of STCS. Our assistance covered an initial comprehensive advice on liquidation of STCS for IT, drafting and authenticating the resolutions for the liquidation and managing the liquidation process with solutions by STC’s different stakeholders as well as the liquidator.
TikTok’s on reviewing and localizing a new platform (SoundOn) terms of use, privacy policy and cookies’ policy in light of Egyptian law. Additionally, we clarified several important notes to be taken into consideration by the client while launching the platform in Egypt.
Paystack advising on the legal framework for the geographical expansion of activities in Egypt.
Numerous international and local entities including Fujitsu, ACE Insurance, Monasnto, UBS, BG Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), GoDaddy Inc, Majid Al Futtaim Group, Panasonic, Deloitte, GoDaddy Inc and CSC on various data protection matters.
A Leading Tech Company on the launch of its gift cards, including licensing requirements under the Central Bank regulations, the nature of the topped-up funds, the nature of the relationship with customers, and the treatment of unclaimed properties.
Nestle on the acquisition of Pfizer nutrition business and the sale of its chilled dairy business in Egypt to Best Cheese Company as part of Nestlé’s worldwide joint venture with Lactalis.
LC Waikiki, Defacto and Azadea group on various aspects of their business including their online platforms.
Panasonic on transfer impact assessment, which includes determining whether the country of the data importer provides a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU.
Huawei on drafting a legal report on the importation and exportation processes for telecommunication equipment.
Neptune Energy’s Intra Group Data Transfer Agreement and assessing its compliance with Data Protection Law no. 151/2020. Additionally, based on our recommendation, we drafted a country-specific data transfer annex to be applied to the data transfer processes in which Egypt’s entity / Egyptian data subjects are involved.
Aosphere on completing a Rulefinder Data Privacy survey which consists of a detailed, comprehensive survey (100 pages) on all matters related to data privacy in Egypt. Our scope of work was mainly focused on Egypt and the provisions of the recently issued and first data protection law 151/2020. Covering key topics such as organization level data privacy requirements, consent, privacy notice, individual choice and data subject request, data transfer and localization rules, breach response and requirements for data processors.
Norton Rose in completing a Global Data Privacy Directory in respect of Egypt. Sharkawy & Sarhan authored the section on Egypt in Norton Rose’s guide for clients on data privacy laws around the world, which includes an overview of the relevant laws (if any) in each jurisdiction, the type of data that is protected and whether there are restrictions on offshore transfers.
Working with the Egyptian government on the draft data protection law. Ahmed proposed several changes that the government accepted and has been involved in the process of drafting the law.
Yazaki Europe Middle East Africa NV on reviewing and amending responses to a questionnaire on rules governing Data Protection Officers under the Data Protection Law No. 151/2020.
Education and Memberships
- IMD Board Director Diploma from The International Institute for Management Development – Global Board Center in June 2024.
- European Data Protection Online Training. Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) in July 2022.
- Audited Corporate and Project Finance Professional Certificate by American University in Cairo, School of Business and Economics, Cairo, Egypt in June 2002.
- LLM, International Banking and Financial Law, Faculty of Law, Boston University, USA.
- LLB, Cairo University, Faculty of Law, English Section, and qualified in 1999.
Insights
Ahmed El-Sharkawy
Partner
Email:
Phone: (+202) 2322 5400 Ext. (101)
Fax: (+202) 2322 5401
Languages: Arabic, English
Related Practice Areas: Corporate & Commercial, Data Privacy & Cyber-security
Ahmed El Sharkawy is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Sharkawy & Sarhan and a leading Egyptian corporate lawyer whose practice spans infrastructure projects, public procurement, finance, TMT, and M&A. Before co-founding the firm, he served as in-house counsel to a major industrial group and later as Country Legal Counsel for Citigroup in Egypt, where he handled a broad range of corporate law and financing matters. He holds an LL.M. in International Banking and Financial Law from Boston University and has been recognized by IFLR1000 as a leading lawyer in Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, and Mergers & Acquisitions.
Most recently, Ahmed advised Stonepeak on its acquisition of a majority controlling interest in Castrol from bp in a landmark transaction valued at approximately USD 10 billion, providing targeted local due diligence and strategic advice across employment, litigation, and general corporate matters. His broader transactional record includes advising on Société Générale’s USD 1.97 billion sale of its stake in National Société Générale Bank to Qatar National Bank and BNP Paribas’s USD 500 million sale of its Egyptian bank to Emirates NBD. He has also advised on strategic deals across energy, infrastructure, and technology, including General Electric’s USD 9.5 billion acquisition of Alstom’s power business, BOOT IPP-related acquisitions, a first-of-its-kind submarine telecom cable acquisition, and acquisitions involving water management, logistics, and technology assets.
Ahmed brings particularly strong infrastructure and projects experience across power, renewables, water, wastewater, transport, and port infrastructure. His work includes advising the PPP Unit in the Ministry of Finance on the New Cairo Water and Wastewater Treatment PPP, advising the World Bank and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company on the first wind farm BOO in Egypt, and advising on the Cairo-Alexandria toll road PPP framework. He has also advised the lenders under Egypt’s Feed-in Tariff program. He regularly advises developers on renewable projects including SPV incorporation, land availment, interim generation licensing, EPC, O&M, and project management issues.
His finance practice covers acquisition finance, project finance, structured finance, reserve-based lending, and Islamic finance for major international banks, DFIs, and sponsors. Representative matters include the USD 1.2 billion financing to Abraaj Capital for the acquisition of Egyptian Fertilizers Company and related USD 400 million Shari’a-compliant refinance, the USD 1 billion EAgrium petrochemicals financing, and the USD 2.5 billion refinancing for Orascom Telecom Holding. His TMT experience includes telecom financing, telecom licensing and tender work, triple-play and mobile license bids, the USD 168 million Nilesat satellite financing, and IFC’s investment in Fawry for Payment Technology. This combination of regulatory depth and commercial judgment makes him a trusted adviser on complex, high-value matters at the intersection of infrastructure, finance, technology, and cross-border M&A.
Recently, he is ranked as a “Leading Individual” in the TMT sector by Legal500 as well as, he was selected by the IFLR1000 as a “Highly Regarded” lawyer from 2015 till 2025.
Representative Experience
Development financial institutions, including IFC, EBRD, Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank, Proparco and other international lenders on the financing of thirty (30) Solar Power Projects under phase two of the Egyptian Feed-in Tariff (FiT) program. Collectively, these projects form a massive solar energy complex in Benban, Aswan, which is expected to be the world’s biggest grid-connected solar power park upon its completion, generating up to 1.8GW of clean energy. Our work included reviewing the English law finance documents, drafting the onshore security package, negotiating the project agreements and all project aspects with the relevant governmental authorities, borrowers and multiple stakeholders.
Molinari Rail AG, Winterthur, Switzerland on negotiating a consultancy agreement with the National Authority for Tunnels in relation to a to the provision of certain consulting services relating to train sets for the greater Cairo Metro Line No. 1 (Helwan to New El – Marge).
The Ministry of Finance (with the IFC) the PPP Unit on the New Cairo Water and Wastewater Treatment PPP Projects, the latter being the only PPP project in recent Egyptian history to reach financial close.
IFC on preparing a legal study as an advisor to the Ministry of Transport’s PPP unit on the rehabilitation and expansion of the Cairo-Alexandria toll road into a freeway.
Stonepeak on its acquisition of a 65% shareholding in Castrol from bp at an enterprise value of USD 10 billion, acting as Egyptian local counsel and providing targeted local due diligence and strategic insight across employment, litigation, and general corporate matters.
Softline Group LTD on the acquisition of 49% of Digitech for Information Technology SAE, including the drafting of transaction documents and advising on the transfer of shares process before the EGX.
Go Daddy on understanding the rules that apply in Egypt around recording customer calls. Specifically, if they were to start recording calls.
STCS for IT on behalf of its parent company (Solutions by STC), on managing the liquidation process of STCS. Our assistance covered an initial comprehensive advice on liquidation of STCS for IT, drafting and authenticating the resolutions for the liquidation and managing the liquidation process with solutions by STC’s different stakeholders as well as the liquidator.
Aosphere on completing a Rulefinder Data Privacy survey which consists of a detailed, comprehensive survey (100 pages) on all matters related to data privacy in Egypt. Our scope of work was mainly focused on Egypt and the provisions of the recently issued and first data protection law 151/2020. Covering key topics such as organization level data privacy requirements, consent, privacy notice, individual choice and data subject request, data transfer and localization rules, breach response and requirements for data processors.
Yazaki Europe Middle East Africa NV on reviewing and amending responses to a questionnaire on rules governing Data Protection Officers under the Data Protection Law No. 151/2020.
Tiktok’s on the integration with another platform to create a “TikTok Marketing App” in Egypt. His advice mainly focused on issues relating to data privacy and requirements relating to Egypt’s media law.
Panasonic on transfer impact assessment, which includes determining whether the country of the data importer provides a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU.
Numerous international and local entities including Fujitsu, ACE Insurance, Monasnto, UBS, BG Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), GoDaddy Inc, Majid Al Futtaim Group, Panasonic, Deloitte, GoDaddy Inc and CSC on various data protection matters.
Conducting an extensive legal assessment for a tech giant on the lunch of its media platform in Egypt.
A number of media companies on compliance and on the licensing regime under the Media Law and its executive regulations.
A tech giant on the legal aspects of deploying artificial intelligence software in Egypt.
Nestle on the acquisition of Pfizer nutrition business and the sale of its chilled dairy business in Egypt to Best Cheese Company as part of Nestlé’s worldwide joint venture with Lactalis.
Several Multinational Technology companies on the new Cybercrimes Law.
Several Multinational Technology companies on the intermediary liability of online platforms under Egyptian Law.
Conducting an extensive legal assessment on the ride hailing regulations in Egypt, including marketing and employment aspects.
A Leading Tech Company on the launch of its gift cards, including licensing requirements under the Central Bank regulations, the nature of the topped-up funds, the nature of the relationship with customers, and the treatment of unclaimed properties.
LC Waikiki, Defacto and Azadea group on various aspects of their business including their online platforms.
Education and Memberships
- LLB, Cairo University, Faculty of Law, English Section, and qualified in 1999.
- LLM, International Banking and Financial Law, Faculty of Law, Boston University, USA.
Insights
“Very responsive, clear advice, they write well and are very good on expectation management with regard to timing, fees and scope. It’s a pleasure to work with the team.”
“Ahmed El Sharkawy leads the practice and is renowned for advising companies on complex commercial and regulatory projects in the TMT space.”
“Ahmed El Sharkawy has developed a niche focus on commercial and regulatory projects within the TMT sector.”
“El Sharkawy is a very bright and young dynamic lawyer.”
“We were impressed with Ahmed El Sharkawy. If it is something needed quickly we go to him.”
“Ahmed Sharkawy was always present, very experienced lawyer, knows the pragmatic side to matters.”
“Ahmed El Sharkawy has developed a niche focus on commercial and regulatory projects within the TMT sector.”
“Ahmed El Sharkawy leads the practice and is renowned for advising companies on complex commercial and regulatory projects in the TMT space.”
“Very responsive, clear advice, they write well and are very good on expectation management with regard to timing, fees and scope. It’s a pleasure to work with the team.”
“El Sharkawy is a very bright and young dynamic lawyer.”
“We were impressed with Ahmed El Sharkawy. If it is something needed quickly we go to him.”
“Ahmed Sharkawy was always present, very experienced lawyer, knows the pragmatic side to matters.”