For fund managers and investment teams, the deal rarely stalls because the investment thesis is weak. It stalls because the legal mechanics around it – structuring, documentation, portfolio governance – weren’t built for the pace the fund needs to move at. Here are the six friction points we see most often, and design around, so […]
The 6 Things That Slow Down Fund Deals in South Africa Read More »
When a South African private equity or venture transaction closes, the cap table is usually clear enough: who owns which shares, in what proportion, with what rights. What is less often modelled with precision – and what causes the most significant surprises at the point of exit or partial realisation – is how the proceeds
What the Waterfall Actually Says: Liquidation Preferences and Why They Bite Read More »
Most founders think about tax in the context of an exit the way most people think about estate planning: something to address when the moment arrives, with the help of an accountant who can optimise whatever structure exists at the time. The problem with this approach is that the moment an exit becomes real is
The Tax Conversation You Should Have Had Before the Buyer Called Read More »
Price per kilowatt-hour is not revenue. It is the starting point for a calculation that most energy project models treat as an ending point, and the gap between the two is where projects that looked bankable on paper stop looking bankable in a lender’s credit committee. The question that matters is not what the offtaker
The Revenue Number Every SA Energy Model Gets Wrong Read More »
Deal teams doing M&A in South Africa are generally well prepared for Competition Commission notification. It is the regulator everyone expects, the one every transaction lawyer raises early, and the one most deal timelines are built around. The regulators that catch teams out are the sector-specific ones – present in a specific transaction, easy to
The Regulator You Forgot About Is the One That Stops the Deal Read More »
Founders preparing for an exit tend to focus their attention on the parts of the business that feel substantive: revenue quality, customer concentration, the strength of the team. Corporate housekeeping – board minutes, shareholder resolutions, the share register – gets treated as administrative residue, the kind of thing that can be tidied up later if
The Paperwork Problem that becomes a Valuation Problem Read More »
In South Africa’s energy market, the most dangerous phase of a project isn’t the negotiation. It’s the waiting. Waiting for environmental authorisation. Waiting for municipal council approval. Waiting for NERSA. Waiting for the network operator to confirm a connection date. Waiting for a government counterparty to respond to correspondence sent three months ago. Projects that
The Consent Bottleneck: How SA Energy Projects Keep Moving When Regulators Don’t Read More »
Fund investors doing regular deals in South Africa and across the region spend significant time and capital on the transactions that define portfolio strategy – the acquisition, the follow-on, the exit. The legal work that gets the least structured attention is the work that happens between those moments: the everyday contract fabric of each portfolio
The Portfolio Contract Hygiene Programme: Where Value Leaks Between the Headline Deals Read More »
Subsidiary legal teams don’t lose control in a single moment. They lose it incrementally, through what accumulates into an exception spiral – a pattern that starts with reasonable flexibility and ends with a function where nobody can confidently state what the company’s standard position actually is. The spiral starts with individual decisions that each make
When teams say “Legal is slow,” it’s rarely because lawyers don’t know what they’re doing. It’s because contract work is high-volume and high-friction: documents arrive through long email chains and get separated from context and attachments, templates are inconsistent and vary by team, region or “who last sent the document”, schedules are incomplete and annexures
The “Legal Front Door”: Fix Contract Turnaround in 30 Days with Secure AI Read More »
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Caveat's ai attorney,
Ask our AI a question about this topic, and one of our specialist lawyers will review the response and email you within 24 hours, free of charge.
KAI is free for Caveat friends and clients. To use KAI, complete the form below and look out for the AI’s answer, reviewed by a specialist lawyer, in your inbox. For the most accurate and helpful response, be as specific and detailed as possible. Provide all relevant facts and clearly state what you’d like answered.
Disclaimer: Kai is provided by Caveat in a bona fide attempt to make legal services more accessible to you. Caveat will not be liable for any damage, loss or expense arising from the use of this offering.
Feedback Welcome: Your experience matters to us. Please share feedback on this offering at info@caveatlegal.com to help us improve its efficacy.
