Dr. Taddese Lencho

Selected Experience

Advised a major investor into once state-owned enterprise in connection with its rights vis-à-vis a minority shareholder;
Advised a foreign investor on its pre-emption rights in connection with its part ownership in a state-owned enterprise;
Advised a number of private equity investors in corporate governance issues and structuring and drafting of term sheets, shareholder agreements, share purchase agreements and negotiating the agreements with their JV partners;
Advised a number of foreign investors in connection with corporate governance structures, including on issues of board composition and board management;
Participated in the drafting of the new Commercial Code of Ethiopia and defended the draft before the Council of Ministers and the House of Peoples’ Representatives before it was passed into law;

Advised and assisted numerous clients on FDI in Ethiopia, including investment restrictions and incentives, registration of FDI, protection of intellectual property and registration and protection of technology transfer agreements;
Conducted limited as well as comprehensive legal due diligence on Ethiopian investment laws at the behest of several clients;
Advised and assisted a multinational company in making the largest FDI to-date in an erstwhile state-owned enterprise;
Advised and participated in negotiations with a strategic conglomerate investor into Ethiopian JV partner engaged in steel processing;
Advised and conducted a legal due diligence for a well-known textile manufacturing multinational in connection with its interest to acquire a textile factory from a local investor;
Spoke on numerous Investment Africa conferences on Doing Business and investment in Ethiopia.

Advised a number of private equity investors in structuring and drafting of term sheets, shareholder agreements, share purchase agreements and negotiating the agreements with their JV partners, and assisted clients in the post M & A period;
Advised and negotiated JV agreements on behalf of a Dubai-based private equity firm in its investments in the local medical supplies’ manufacturer;
Advised and negotiated JV agreements on behalf of a Mauritius based private equity firm in connection with its investments in an FMCG Ethiopian company;
Advised a private equity firm based in Mauritius in connection with its investments in a bottled-water manufacturer;
Advised a private equity firm based in Mauritius in connection with its investments in food processing company;
Advised and participated in negotiations with a strategic conglomerate investor into Ethiopian potential JV partner engaged in steel processing;
Advised, drafted and negotiated a number of transaction documents for an leading agricultural inputs manufacturer in connection with its acquisition by lease of agricultural inputs manufacturing plants in Ethiopia;
Spoke on East Africa Venture Capital Association (EAVCA) conference in Nairobi, Kenya, on challenges faced by private equity investors in Ethiopia;

Advised and assisted a number of foreign investors in connection with shareholder equity and debt financing;
Advised and assisted numerous clients in relation to financing transactions, including undertaking due diligence investigations and reviewing transaction documents for their validity and enforceability under Ethiopian law;
Advised a number of international financial institutions in connection with the financial facility agreements;
Advised and assisted Chinese lenders and Chinese law firms in connection with sovereign loans and sovereign guarantees extended to finance mega infrastructure projects in Ethiopia;
Advised an international agricultural inputs manufacturer and supplier on National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) forex directives, including on debt-to-equity ratio, foreign loans and suppliers’ credit, retention of forex on export earnings and remittances.
Advised and assisted a major car dealer in Ethiopia on the possibilities of further investments downstream and retaining a foreign investment status and easier repatriation in hard currencies;
Advised and assisted a number of clients on foreign exchange control directives and assisted clients on registration and recognition of foreign loans and suppliers’ credits;
Offered expert opinions on the Capital Markets Proclamation and its harmonization with the new Commercial Code of Ethiopia.

Drafted Book III of the new Commercial Code of Ethiopia (Preventive Restructuring, Reorganization and Bankruptcy Law);
Advised an international consultancy firm in connection with a possibility of obtaining a judgement of bankruptcy against a company in Ethiopia defaulting on its payments to the firm;
Provided training on Book III of the new Commercial Code of Ethiopia to members of parliaments, federal court judges and members of the Ethiopian and Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce;
Participated in the writing of an Insolvency Practitioners’ Manual for training the first cohort of insolvency practitioners in Ethiopia;
Authored peer-reviewed commentaries on Ethiopian bankruptcy laws.

Advised numerous investors on tax optimization and applicability or otherwise of Ethiopian Double Taxation Treaties;
Advised a number of private equity investors in Ethiopia in connection with their joint venture investments in Ethiopia, including conducting tax due diligence on the target investee companies;
dvised and assisted a well-known beverages manufacturer on obtaining advance tax rulings from the Ministry of Finance;
advised and assisted a multinational beverages manufacturer in connection with corporate, VAT, excise tax dispute with the tax authorities;
advised and assisted a mining company in connection with its tax disputes with the tax authorities;
advised international development agencies and embassies on the tax implications of development contracts, lease agreements, consultancy and employment contracts;

Successfully represented a Chinese Construction company in connection with a corporate and VAT assessment reducing the amount of tax assessment from 1.6 billion ETB to less than a 100 million ETB;
Advising and assisting numerous companies from China, UK, India, Israel, Belgium and Turkey in connection with their ongoing tax disputes with the tax authorities.

Conducted tax training for members of American Chamber of Commerce and a number of clients upon request;
Offered expert opinions on draft tax laws of Ethiopia (most recently the draft VAT law).
Authors the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD, Amsterdam) Ethiopian chapters on “Corporate Taxation,” “Individual Taxation,” and “Business Investment”.
Published numerous scholarly articles on Ethiopian taxation and Ethiopian tax system in national and international law journals and reviews.