Sihle Sibanyoni
Biography
Sihle Sibanyoni is an associate in Baker McKenzie's Corporate M&A Practice Group in Johannesburg.
She has experience advising clients on general corporate and commercial law, corporate governance, due diligence investigations, corporate reorganizations, and mergers and acquisitions across multiple industry sectors.
As an energy and infrastructure practitioner, Sihle advised and assisted on high-profile solar, wind, biomass, floating power and hydropower projects. She provides corporate advisory and other commercial legal services to local and international project sponsors, developers, contractors and lenders in complex greenfield and brownfield developments, advising on citing, permitting and regulatory concerns.
In the infrastructure sector, she has experience in social infrastructure transactions. Sihle has assisted on matters concerning PPP and concession agreements, project strategy and structuring EPC contracts, including standard and bespoke forms of contracts, operation and maintenance contracts, fuel purchase and sale agreements and related matters.
Representative Legal Matters
- Advised Bidvest Services Proprietary Limited on the acquisition of the business assets owned by Just Pure Natural Products CC.
- Advised The Bidvest Group (UK) Plc, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bidvest Group Limited, in relation to its proposed acquisition of 100% of Citron Hygiene LP from Birch Hill Equity Partners and other investors.
- Advising Shell Downstream South Africa Proprietary Limited (SDSA) and bp Southern Africa Proprietary Limited (bpSA) as shareholders of South African Petroleum Refineries Proprietary Limited (SAPREF) owning 100% of the issued shares of their joint venture company SAPREF, in their potential disposal of the assets and liabilities in respect of the SAPREF Refinery, including the interests of SDSA and bpSA in the SAPREF land, the crude and finished product tanks, process units, pipelines to and from SAPREF to the Island View terminal, and the Single Buoy Mooring for crude imports to the Central Energy Fund SOC Limited. The potential disinvestment included preparation, negotiation and bringing to execution of an asset purchase agreement. Our mandate included the undertaking of a due diligence investigation pertaining to the operations of SAPREF and the prevailing regulatory framework, and the rendering of general commercial, tax and regulatory advice.
- Advised Ramboll Holdings Inc which forms part of the Ramboll Group A/S, a global architecture, engineering, and consultancy company, in respect of the disposal of its South African entity, Ramboll Environ Africa (Pty) Ltd and consequently the Mozambican branch of the entity. Our work included facilitating the due diligence process, providing corporate and tax related advice, drafting of the transaction documents and assisting with the implementation and closing process.
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Law Society of South Africa
Admissions
- South Africa (2024)
Education
- University of the Witwatersrand (LLB) (2021)
- University of Johannesburg (Bachelor of Arts in Public Management and Governance) (2019)
Languages
- English