Amy Eliason

Director

About

Amy is experienced in the areas of equity capital markets, public and private M&A, private equity and general corporate and commercial law. She has advised on numerous M&A deals in various sectors, but with a focus on technology, consumer goods, food & retail, renewable energy and financial services.

Areas of FocusCorporate Mergers and Acquisitions Insurance

Professional QualificationsAttorney of the High Court of South Africa, 2015

EXPERIENCE

Advised Cell C Limited (Cell C) and Cell C Holdings Limited (Cell C Listco) in a pre listing restructuring between Cell C and its shareholders, aimed at optimising Cell C’s capital structure and balance sheet in preparation for the listing of Cell C Listco on the main board of the JSE.
Advising Premier Group and Brait Mauritius on the listing of all Premier’s ordinary shares on the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), and on the offer for sale by Brait of Premier ordinary shares to selected investors by way of a ZAR3.5 billion bookbuild.
Advising Sanlam Life Insurance, Sanlam Personal Loans, SPL Services and Tyme Bank on the establishment of a joint venture focused on unsecured personal loans with an embedded credit life offering.
Advising FirstRand Bank on its acquisition of the Slow Lounge business from Comair for ZAR250 million.
Advising Brait Mauritius Limited in relation to the sale of its stake in DGB Proprietary Limited, one of South Africa’s leading wine and spirit producers and distributors, to a major South African private equity fund.
Advising E4 Strategic Proprietary, a specialist fintech, on its acquisition by a consortium of private equity investors led by Infinite Partners for more than ZAR1 billion.
Advising Dogstar Mauritius, a majority shareholder in renewable energy services provider Starsight Energy on its merger with South African-based solar firm, SolarAfrica Energy.
Advising (as South African local counsel) nCino, a leading global financial technology company, on the USD75 million acquisition of DocFox, a global end-to-end software solution and onboarding service provider for commercial and business banks.
Advising CoMind Technology, a life sciences company focusing on the development of innovative neuromonitoring devices and neural interfaces on series B investment round.
Advising a private equity firm in its acquisition of a stake in a South African private company predominantly involved in the health food business.

Languages

Education

University of the Witwatersrand, LLB (cum laude), 2012

University of the Witwatersrand, Bachelor of Commerce with Honours in Finance, (cum laude), 2010

University of Witwatersrand, Bachelor of Commerce, (cum laude), 2009

Publications

"Is action on Ayo a no-no?", Business Day, 2019.
"Crowdfunding and the US$40,000 potato salad", Without Prejudice, 2014
"Welcome to South Africa…I think", Without Prejudice, 2013
"The Infrastructure Development Bill - under renovation", Lexology.com, 2012

Prior Experience

Before joining DLA Piper in September 2016, Amy completed her articles at Webber Wentzel in 2014 and was appointed as an associate in 2015.

During her time as a candidate attorney at Webber Wentzel, she was elected to be a member of the Webber Wentzel Leadership Network, which established a partnership with the Awethu Project, an organisation which helps underprivileged entrepreneurs to start their own businesses.