Practice areas
Eight practice areas, one reflex: securing the transaction on both sides of the Mediterranean.
OHADA corporate law and governance
Setting up, organising and running your companies across the 17 states, under the revised Uniform Act of 2014.
Your challenges
- Choosing the right company form
- Securing the governance of a remote subsidiary
- Preparing to open up the capital
What we do
- Incorporation of SARL, SAS and SA entities
- Articles of association and shareholders’ agreements
- Annual corporate secretarial work (meetings, accounts, mandates)
- Conversions, mergers and winding-up
- Training for directors on their liabilities
Representative work
- Conversion of a family-owned food-processing SARL (Douala) into an SAS, with a shareholders’ agreement ahead of an investor’s entry.
- Overhaul of the governance of a European group’s Cameroonian subsidiary: board, delegations of authority, regulated agreements.
Lead lawyers
Further reading
M&A and private equity
Buying, selling, raising funds: transactions run on both sides by a single team.
Your challenges
- Auditing a target to European standards
- Drafting warranties that can be enforced locally
- Aligning European and OHADA law
What we do
- Acquisition due diligence (legal, employment, compliance)
- Sale and purchase agreements, asset and liability warranties
- Fundraising and investor agreements
- Joint ventures
- Financing and post-acquisition management agreements
Representative work
- Acquisition of a Cameroonian cocoa processor by a European agribusiness group.
- A fund’s entry into the capital of a mobile-payment start-up based in Yaoundé (Series A).
Banking, finance and security interests
Security that holds on the day you need it.
Your challenges
- Making security interests enforceable against third parties
- Coordinating a lender pool
- Anticipating insolvency proceedings
What we do
- Bilateral and syndicated bank financing
- OHADA security interests: pledges, mortgages, assignments of receivables, security agent
- Project finance
- Debt restructuring
- Regulatory compliance for microfinance institutions
Representative work
- Syndicated financing of a 30 MWp solar plant: security package and security agent.
- Restructuring of the receivables portfolio of a microfinance institution.
Arbitration (CCJA, ICC) and commercial litigation
Preventing the dispute — and winning it if it comes.
Your challenges
- Choosing the right forum before a dispute arises
- Enforcing a decision in several states
- Recovering debts quickly
What we do
- Drafting dispute-resolution clauses
- CCJA and ICC arbitration
- Mediation (Uniform Act of 2017)
- Commercial litigation before Cameroonian courts
- Debt recovery and enforcement: payment orders, attachments
Representative work
- CCJA arbitration in a road construction dispute.
- Payment order followed by an attachment of receivables for a European equipment supplier.
Further reading
Tax and customs (CEMAC)
Anticipating tax rather than suffering it.
Your challenges
- Structuring a tax-efficient set-up
- Securing transfer pricing
- Importing equipment without delays
What we do
- Tax advice on market entry
- Transfer pricing and documentation
- Assistance in tax audits and disputes
- Customs regimes and clearance of equipment
- VAT (19.25% in Cameroon)
Representative work
- Assistance to a manufacturer during a tax audit on transfer pricing.
- Securing the customs regime for the equipment of an infrastructure site.
Lead lawyers
Energy, mining and infrastructure
Long projects, shared risks, contracts that last twenty years.
Your challenges
- Making a project bankable
- Negotiating with the State
- Securing mining titles
What we do
- Public-private partnerships and concessions
- Power purchase agreements
- Construction (EPC) contracts
- Mining titles and compliance
- Project arbitration
Representative work
- Advice to a consortium on a hydropower plant PPP.
- Review of the mining titles of an exploration company ahead of a fundraising.
Lead lawyers
Further reading
Compliance: anti-corruption, data protection, due diligence
One compliance approach for Paris and Douala.
Your challenges
- Complying with both the GDPR and Cameroon’s Law no. 2024/017
- Transferring data between the EU and Cameroon
- Preventing corruption in the subcontracting chain
What we do
- Data compliance programmes: records, bilingual notices, contracts
- International transfers (standard contractual clauses)
- Anti-corruption programmes and risk mapping
- Duty of vigilance (French law of 2017, EU directive)
- Internal investigations
Representative work
- Dual-track compliance for a services group present in Paris and Douala.
- Corruption risk mapping for an industrial subsidiary.
Market entry: Europe–Africa
From the first question to the first invoice: your market entry, step by step.
Your challenges
- Choosing between a branch and a subsidiary
- Hiring, contracting and invoicing locally
- Getting the formalities right first time
What we do
- Market-entry study (form, tax, employment)
- Incorporation and formalities (CFCE, RCCM, NIU)
- Distribution, agency and franchise agreements
- First hires
- Support for English-speaking investors (common law)
Representative work
- Cameroonian market entry of a German manufacturer of solar equipment: company form, incorporation, distribution contracts.
- Branch, then subsidiary, of a French logistics group within the two-year deadline.
§ 09 — How we work
Four steps, from the first call to archiving
First conversation and conflict check
Within one business day we check for conflicts of interest and set a first conversation.
Scoping note and fee agreement
We write down what we will do, within what time and at what price.
Delivery, with a responsible partner
A partner answers for the matter; a Douala–Paris pair runs it if it is cross-border.
Follow-up, closing and archiving
Final report, return of documents, archiving in line with professional rules.
§ 10 — Sectors
Sectors we know
Energy and mining
Power plants, grids, mining titles: we structure projects whose contracts run for twenty years.
Infrastructure, construction and port logistics
The ports of Douala and Kribi, corridors to Chad and the Central African Republic: we know the contracts that keep goods moving.
Agribusiness and timber
Cocoa, coffee, oil, timber: contracts that follow the supply chain from plantation to export.
Banking, microfinance and insurance
Institutions regulated by COBAC or CIMA: licences, security, compliance.
Telecoms and digital
Mobile payments, data hosting, licences: a sector where data law comes before the contract.
Health and pharmaceuticals
Import, distribution, partnerships with healthcare providers: a demanding regulatory framework.
Let’s talk about your project.
A first 20-minute conversation is free of charge. We first check for conflicts of interest.
Reply within one business day, after a conflict-of-interest check.