French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel is set to become the latest international firm to launch an office in Egypt’s capital city Cairo, its second expansion in the Middle East in four months.
Gide’s Cairo office will open in the first quarter of 2018 and the latest expansion is headed by partner Baudouin de Moucheron. He served as the firm’s senior partner from 2012 to 2017 and focuses on employment law and litigation.
The Cairo office will be Gide’s third location in the Middle East region and further strengthens its presence in Africa where it already has three offices in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
The Cairo launch comes shortly after Gide opened an office in Iran’s capital Tehran in September 2017, following the hire of regulatory lawyer Mehrnoosh Aryanpour from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. The firm has a longstanding office in Turkey, its first base in the Middle East established in 1997.
Growing foreign direct investment into Egypt is said to be a key driver behind the Cairo launch. In 2017, Egypt was the most attractive destination in terms of foreign direct investment in Africa, leaving South Africa in second place for the first time. The country attracted a total of $13.5bn FDI out of $59bn for Africa as a whole.
The firm’s spokesperson noted that the Cairo office’s focus initially will be on mergers and acquisitions and corporate law, with plans to later broaden to encompass international arbitration and competition law.
The past a few years has seen a stream of international firms entering in Egypt, including Italian firm BonelliErede and US firm White & Case.
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