Alyafi joins Baker McKenzie’s transactional practice as a partner in Riyadh
Khalid Alyafi (pictured) joins Baker McKenzie‘s transactional practice group as a partner in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, effective 1 October 2024.
Khalid Alyafi’s career path
His arrival adds further bench strength to the Firm’s transactional and capital markets capabilities globally and in the Middle East & North Africa region (MENA). Khalid joins the Firm from Khoshaim & Associates (K&A), prior to which he had spent nearly a decade working at Allen & Overy (now A&O Shearman) in London where he advised on landmark international capital markets transactions.
Alyafi’s practice focuses on both debt and equity capital markets (including Rule 144A and Reg S). He has extensive experience advising issuers, sponsors, and underwriters on sovereign, corporate conventional, Islamic debt and high-yield issuances (both public and private), as well as IPOs, rights offerings, and public M&A matters across Europe and MENA. He has advised clients on IPOs on the Tadawul main market, London Stock Exchange and Euronext, dozens of Sukuk and bond issuances in the GCC, and has also advised on some of the largest public M&A transactions in the Saudi market.
Commenting on Khalid’s hire, Baker McKenzie’s Saudi Arabia managing partner, Karim Nassar, said:
Khalid’s arrival adds significant depth to our Saudi capital markets practice and further bolsters our position as a transactional powerhouse. His cross-border experience will be extremely valuable to our clients, especially as we see growing demand from investors and corporations for sophisticated legal expertise in international transactions. We are delighted that he has joined our Firm and the Saudi team.
Alyafi’s appointment follows a series of strategic hires across MENA, including Sally Kotb who joined the Firm as a dispute resolution partner based in Dubai earlier this month, and Dino Wilkinson, who joined the Firm yesterday as a partner and Head of the Firm’s Middle East Data, Cyber and Technology practice based in Abu Dhabi.
Alyafi’s hire brings the number of partners based in Saudi Arabia to 11, who lead a unique platform advising clients across banking and finance, M&A, capital markets, corporate and commercial, competition, Islamic finance, technology, real estate and projects matters. He is one of more than 50 partners to have joined Baker McKenzie’s global transactional team in key business markets over the past 18 months.
