Firas Habib

Associate | Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Profile

Firas is an associate in the corporate and commercial team in our Dubai office. Firas advises on mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, liquidations, incorporations, JVs and funds across the manufacturing, real estate, education, energy, infrastructure, construction, healthcare and technology sectors covering both the UAE and the GCC.

Prior to joining Kennedys Firas was senior counsel at a multi-billion dollar technology group that operates across emerging markets. During his time as senior counsel, Firas advised on a host of technology related contracts including franchise, distribution, reseller, non-disclosure and SaaS agreements.

Firas is fluent in Arabic and English.

Qualifications:

  • BEng/Bsc in Engineering and Business Management, King’s College London, 2005
  • Graduate Diploma in Law, University of Law, 2013
  • Legal Practice Course, University of Law, 2015
  • Qualified in England & Wales in 2020

Work highlights

  • Advised a UK based construction company on the majority sale of a USD 100 million to a private equity investor, 2024.
  • Advised the BVI holding company of a technology group on the acquisition of a USD 7 million Cypriot company and USD 5 million Spanish company, 2022.
  • Advised a UK based healthcare provider on the USD 100 million acquisition of a UAE based cancer centre along with a subsequent USD 50 million capital injection, 2018.
  • Advised on the internal restructuring of a BVI based holding company to align with the economic substance laws which came into force in 1 Jan 2019. This included cross boarder domiciliation, putting in place inter-company service agreements and the appropriate novation agreements, 2021.
  • Advised on the USD 60 million capitalisation of two Cypriot holding companies including the drafting of the subscription agreements, 2023.
  • Advised on a host of technology agreements including distribution agreements with distributors such as Arrow, Ingram Micro and Reddington, SaaS agreements with OEMs such as Hewlett Packard Enterprises and Data Privacy agreements and Non-Disclosure Agreements.
  • Advised on the amendment of T&C’s for the purchases of software subscriptions.

Services

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