Africa: Corporate/Commercial Law

The European Union's new hazard classes for chemical substances are nearing the end of their transitional period, with a critical deadline of 1 November 2026 for substances already in the market. These classifications cover endocrine disruption, persistent and bioaccumulative properties, and mobile toxic characteristics that will fundamentally change how companies must classify, label, and register chemical substances under REACH and CLP regulations.

As SARS intensifies enforcement through data analytics and AI, taxpayers face increasing technical and procedural risks when disputing assessments. Understanding the objection process—from requesting reasons to meeting strict deadlines and providing proper documentation—can determine whether a tax dispute is resolved efficiently or escalates unnecessarily.

Two East African courts examined nearly identical bank fraud cases involving stolen phones and self-registration, yet reached opposite conclusions about who bears the loss. The divergent rulings in Kenya and Uganda expose fundamental questions about what duty of care banks owe customers in the digital age, and whether authentication alone absolves institutions of responsibility for preventable system failures.

The Nigerian Exchange Group has unveiled plans to allow Nigerian companies with significant foreign exchange revenue and free trade zone enterprises to issue and list bonds and stocks denominated in US Dollars. This initiative aims to provide an avenue to meet the foreign exchange needs of such companies while enhancing investment opportunities in Nigerian capital markets.

The Namibia Securities Exchange has introduced a streamlined regulatory framework for transitioning listed debt instruments from JIBAR to ZARONIA, establishing an exchange-level process that differs significantly from South Africa's approach. This directive allows issuers to implement the benchmark transition through simple addenda without bondholder approval, raising important questions about the balance between regulatory efficiency and contractual rights in debt capital markets.

Nigeria's cryptocurrency market has long operated in a legal grey area, but the enactment of the Investments and Securities Act 2025 marks a turning point. For the first time, digital and virtual assets are expressly recognised within the country's securities regulatory framework, bringing clarity to their legal status and placing qualifying activities under the supervision of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, restructuring and distressed deal activity are being shaped by two apparently opposite forces: resilient growth and heightened risk. The mining economy continues to attract capital, particularly in copper, cobalt, energy, logistics and infrastructure. At the same time, the concentration of growth in extractive industries exposes companies to commodity-price cycles, export measures, foreign-exchange pressures, supply-chain disruption and the security situation in the eastern provinces.

The European General Court has upheld the Commission's prohibition of Booking Holdings' acquisition of Etraveli Group, endorsing a novel 'reverse leveraging' theory of harm in platform mergers. This landmark judgment establishes that a dominant platform can be blocked from acquiring a business in an adjacent market even when the transaction produces only a marginal market share increase, if it serves to entrench an already weak competitive environment and make it harder for rivals to challenge the incumbent

South Africa's most significant transactions reveal a fundamental shift in how strategic assets are valued and controlled. From Pepkor's fintech consolidation to Anglo American's De Beers sale, buyers are pursuing established market positions, but regulatory conditions and competitive constraints are limiting how freely these acquired platforms can be deployed.

Kenya's Finance Act 2026 introduces significant tax reforms that impact venture capital, private equity, and foreign investment. This discussion explores how these changes affect investor confidence...

Kenya's Finance Act 2026 introduces significant tax reforms that impact investors and businesses operating in the country. This podcast discussion examines the practical implications of these changes, from tax amnesty provisions to REIT incentives, and explores what they mean for Kenya's investment climate. Industry experts analyze how these reforms affect venture capital, private equity, and the broader tax policy landscape over the coming years.

The European Commission has proposed EU Inc, a harmonized corporate legal framework allowing companies to incorporate under a single European company-law form across all 27 Member States. This initiative aims to reduce legal fragmentation and transaction costs that currently discourage companies from scaling within the Single Market, addressing Europe's challenge of converting startups into unicorns at scale comparable to the United States. The proposal represents not merely a company-law simplification but