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King & Spalding’s Riyadh office is a critical hub for continuing the firm’s award-winning work in serving our long-standing and growing client base in Saudi Arabia and around the world on matters in and involving Saudi Arabia. Having worked in the region for almost 20 years, the team has an exceptional understanding of the Kingdom’s business, legal, and regulatory landscape.
Combining our current on-the-ground Saudi presence, our pan-regional Middle Eastern presence together with our global capabilities, our team is at the forefront of and committed to advising clients on a diverse range of innovative matters related to the Kingdom’s growth. Our team comprises multiple lawyers with over 20 years of experience in Saudi Arabia as well as Saudi Arabian nationals trained at leading law schools, many of whom have also received training in our other offices. Our highly versatile lawyers are consistently recognized in the top tier of legal directories (Legal 500, Chambers, IFLR and others) across several areas.
- Our Investment Funds and Capital Markets teams have the strongest track record in the market in relation to the establishment of funds with innovative structures in Saudi Arabia on both a conventional and Shari'ah-compliant basis. We have notable experience in Saudi-listed and unlisted REITs and private equity, venture capital, and infrastructure funds investing in highly regulated sectors. As a result, we have a compelling record of successfully working with the Saudi Capital Market Authority, the Saudi Stock Exchange, and related agencies. We also regularly advise clients on the regulations in raising funds from Saudi Arabia and representing those funds on their acquisitions in Saudi Arabia. The team has been ranked Band 1 in Chambers Global and Legal 500 for Investment Funds and Capital Markets every year that these categories have existed.
- Our Energy, Construction, Projects, and Infrastructure teams are recognized as world‑leading. The scale and ingenuity of the projects they are working on, coupled with the innovation in energy that several of their matters involve, has led them to be known as a team specializing in giga-projects with a commitment to and focus on projects within the Saudi Vision 2030.
- We are one of the leading financing and restructuring practices in Saudi Arabia. Our Islamic Finance practice dates back to 1995, when we led structuring efforts deploying billions of U.S. dollars in complex, innovative, often first-of-their-kind transactions. We have since remained at the cutting edge of award-winning transactions, covering conventional and Shari'ah-compliant financings. Our team has advised multiple Saudi financial institutions, foreign lenders, and borrowers on significant, highly structured and complex financings. The practice now also covers “first-of-a-kind” restructurings under the 2018 Saudi Arabian bankruptcy law. We were recently recognized as the leading restructuring law firm by Islamic Finance News. The team also regularly works with Shari’ah-compliant investors on structuring their investments globally.
- Our M&A and Venture Capital practice has led multi-nationals, government/sovereign entities, private equity firms, financial institutions, and investors on M&A investments and corporate restructurings. Our work has resulted in the creation of the first “Unicorn” in Saudi Arabia and the first approved digital bank in Saudi Arabia. We are continuing to work on market-first transactions. We are regarded as leaders in specific sectors such as food and beverage, entertainment, energy, healthcare, and technology. Our Saudi Arabia-based team advises on both buy-side and sell-side transactions as well as inbound and outbound investments. We have often been asked to advise Saudi Arabian governmental organizations in relation to the laws and regulations impacting M&A and venture capital transactions.
- Our International Arbitration practice is world-leading, and represents multi-nationals, financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds and States. We are one of the few law firms to have handled arbitrations under all the Arbitral Institutions, including Saudi Arabia-seated disputes under The Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration. We have handled numerous arbitrations in Saudi Arabia, including those in relation to the world’s largest petrochemical project. Our team also regularly handles and works with our global investigation teams on a wide range of matters.
- Our Real Estate practice has handled many of the most significant hospitality projects, acquisitions, and joint ventures in Saudi Arabia. Our team has worked on many leading branded residence projects in Saudi Arabia as well as numerous real estate joint ventures. Our team has advised on a number of the Vision 2030 projects in Saudi Arabia.
