Shemane Amin

Shemane Amin is a Partner in the Corporate Department of A&K Tanzania. She also manages the firm’s client experience and is responsible for overseeing operations.

Shemane is a corporate lawyer. She advises international and local acquiring firms and targets in various commercial transactions, including structuring joint ventures, asset purchase acquisitions, disposals of businesses, and share purchase acquisitions. Particularly in highly-regulated Tanzanian sectors such as natural resources, insurance, financial services and telecommunications, Shemane guides clients through the relevant comprehensive due diligence investigations, pre-transaction structuring, drafting and negotiation of transaction documentation, and regulatory clearances. Shemane also specialises in guiding foreign investors entering the Tanzanian market on the establishment of their business structures, strategic fiscal and non-fiscal investment incentives, access to land, employment considerations, and the relevant legal and tax frameworks.

Shemane is one of Tanzania’s few US-Tanzanian dual-qualified lawyers, having been admitted to practice in both Massachusetts and Tanzania. She started her legal career in the United States with Brown Rudnick LLP, in their Boston and New York offices. After returning to Tanzania, she worked with ATZ Law Chambers briefly and then proceeded to expand her commercial and operational experience by taking an in-house position as a Corporate Advisor to the MeTL Group. In that role, she managed complex corporate transactions across the group, including assessing acquisition targets and carrying out due diligence exercises. Thereafter, Shemane held a dual-management role at Philip Morris Tanzania, where she was Manager of Corporate Affairs and Manager of Commercial, Strategy & Planning.

The experience of having filled various legal and non-legal management roles in domestic and large-scale multinational companies, as well as establishing her own business ventures in Tanzania, brings a practical and commercially-sensitive approach to her legal practice.

Shemane is a graduate of the Boston University School of Law where she graduated as a Juris Doctor and she holds a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University where she received a full scholarship under the Robertson Scholars Program.

• Admitted, Massachusetts Bar
• Admitted, Tanganyika Law Society
• Admitted, East Africa Law Society
• Board Member, American Chamber of Commerce Tanzania
• Honorary Bailli Delegue, La Chaine de Rotisseurs Tanzania

2008-2011: Juris Doctorate, Boston University School of Law, Boston, MA (USA)

2004-2008: B.A. (Psychology and Markets and Management), Duke University, Durham, NC (USA)

June 2019 – Date: Partner, A&K Tanzania

Feb 2019 – May 2019: Director, ATZ Law Chambers (Acquired By A&K Tanzania)

Jul 2017 – Dec 2018: Manager Of Corporate Affairs & Commercial Strategy And Planning, Philip Morris, Tanzania

Mar 2015 – Jun 2017: Corporate Advisor, METL Group, Tanzania

Apr 2014 – Feb 2015: Senior Associate, ATZ Law Chambers

Oct 2011 – Dec 2013: Associate, Brown Rudnick LLP, USA

• Robertson Scholar, Duke University 2004
• Top 100 Lawyers of Color Under 40 in the Northeast Region of the U.S., 2012

M&A

• Acting for the coordinating committee of bondholders in Petra Diamonds, holding USD 650 million in bonds, on a debt to equity conversion transaction that resulted in the client acquiring a significant interest in the Petra Diamonds group, which has mining assets in Tanzania.
• Acting for Arise BV, an Africa investment company, in connection with the acquisition of a 35% stake owned by its shareholders, Rabobank, in NMB Bank Plc which is one of Tanzania’s largest commercial banks.
• Acting for Actis one of the largest Private Equity investors in Africa, and Westmont Hospitality Group, one of the largest privately held hospitality groups having owned or operated over 1,100 hotels globally, in connection with the proposed acquisition of hotel assets in East Africa.
• Acting for a private European investor in relation to the proposed acquisition of a majority interest in one of Tanzania’s largest safari camp/lodge operators.
• Advising various clients on Tanzania’s merger control regime governed by the Fair Competition Commission, including as part of complex restructuring and M&A transactions.

General Corporate

• Acting for various clients, including AirBnB, Facebook and Google, in connection with the telecommunications, digital platform and information regulations in Tanzania.
• Acting for Aviagen, a major global broiler breeder, in connection with various real estate and corporate law matters relating to the establishment of their operations in East Africa.
• Acting for one of East Africa’s major sports and online betting companies in connection with an investment in the region.
• Acting for foreign investors across sectors (including agriculture, livestock, financial services, tourism) in connection with the registration with and obtaining incentives from the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC).

Real Estate

• Acting for TUI Group, an Anglo-German multinational travel and tourism company headquartered in Hanover, Germany and the largest leisure, travel and tourism company in the world, on a hotel construction contract for the first TUI hotel in Zanzibar.
• Acting for UAE-based Majid Al Futtaim, which is the exclusive franchisee to operate Carrefour in over 30 countries, in connection with the establishment of Carrefour supermarkets in Tanzania.
• Acting for CRJE, a leading Chinese building and civil contractor and member of the China Railway Group Company in China, in connection with the development of a multi-story commercial real estate project in conjunction with the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, including drafting the Build Operate and Transfer Agreement and related agreements.
• Acting for various foreign investors seeking to occupy and use land in Tanzania for investment purposes.

Banking & Finance and Fintech

• Acting for Mastercard in connection with their investments in Airtel Africa’s mobile money business.
• Acting for Standard Bank Mauritius in connection with a USD 15 million upsizing, extension and amendment of an existing facility to a listed company with operations in Tanzania’s mining sector.
• Acting for UBS Switzerland AG and CA Indosuez (Switzerland) in connection with the provision of a USD 200 million syndicated uncommitted transactional secured borrowing base revolving credit facility across various African jurisdictions to a Swiss borrower for purposes of transactional financing.

Employment

• Acting for various clients in connection with a range of employment and labour law matters, including retrenchment, termination and disciplinary procedures, consequences of noncompliance, social security, and other entitlements.

Natural Resources

• Acting for the coordinating committee of bondholders in Petra Diamonds, holding USD 650 million in bonds, on a debt to equity conversion transaction that resulted in the client acquiring a significant interest in the Petra Diamonds group, which has mining assets in Tanzania.
• Acting for Orica Norway AS, the world’s largest provider of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems to the mining, quarrying, oil and gas and construction markets, in connection with the Tanzanian mining laws and the structuring of their operations in Tanzania.
• Advising Uranium One in connection with their mining operations in Tanzania.
• Acting for Siemens Energy in connection with their operations in Tanzania.
• Acting for various suppliers to mines in Tanzania, including Mantrac Tanzania, Orica Tanzania, Tri-Pump, and Penna Pura Oil Tanzania, in connection with the local content laws and related compliance, as well as the structuring options available to meet those requirements.
• Acting for various potential suppliers to the EACOP, in connection with local content structuring options.