Legal team size: Four

What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

My role as legal director of the company is to devise goals and objectives with the required action steps to enable the legal department to provide legal services in an efficient and effective manner.

I have been engaged in directing and coordinating a merger transaction which is one of the few merger transactions conducted in Ethiopia. In this transaction process, we have managed to secure all the required regulatory approvals, and we are working on the post-merger integration. The process has been quite challenging as merger is not a well-practiced transaction in Ethiopia.

We have also been engaged in supporting the company in the implementation of its new distribution model. In this regard, we have standardised the product distribution agreement in line with the new distribution model strategy and defended high stake disputes which had the potential of negatively impacting the new strategy.

In addition to this, we have also engaged in high-profile litigation associated with the sale of the company’s real estate. The amount in dispute was five bn birr, and we successfully resolved it amicably.

Furthermore, we had a major engagement in seeking administrative remedies for the challenges the company has been facing in the importation of Hops Extracts. We have challenged the way the importation of Hops Extract was managed in a researched manner.

We have been successful in getting administrative decision in our favor and with a huge saving for the company.

Finally, our endeavor on the draft regulation on the administration of food and drug issued by the Ethiopian Food and Drug Administration is worth mentioning. The draft regulation imposes a total ban on social media advertisement, and we have submitted a well-researched paper recommending a balanced regulation on social media advertisement instead of total ban. The draft regulation has not been approved yet and we believe our concerns and recommendations are under consideration.

Which recent political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted your work the most in recent years?

Recently, the regional states in Ethiopia are promulgating laws on urban land administration based on the delegation given to them by the Federal Government. By doing so, they have imposed a new lease rate for all lands possessed and used by the company in its manufacturing sites which has a monetary impact.

In addition to this, there is a recent directive on the implementation of excise tax stamp issued by Ministry of Finance. The directive includes beer in its scope. controversial as beer manufacturers have objected the inclusion of beer by citing the absence of illicit beer and smuggled beer sold in the Ethiopian beer market which are the fundamental reasons for the inclusion of a product in the excise tax stamp system. In this regard, we have commissioned a study by one of the Audit and Consulting Firms in Ethiopia and the research outcome clearly indicates the absence of legitimate reasons to include beer in the scope of the excise tax stamp system. However, the directive has been approved recently and beer is included in its scope.

Hence, it will have huge financial, operational and an overall negative impact on the supply chain in the industry.

Are there any causes, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

I am passionate about physical exercise, and I love doing workouts at home and running outdoors once a week. Physical exercise enhances overall health, and it also boosts our physical, mental, and psychological fitness.