Merger control in the Middle East and North Africa

Samantha Mobley is a partner in the Competition, Trade and Foreign Investment team at Baker & McKenzie's London office. She headed Baker McKenzie's Global Antitrust and Competition Group, a team of over 300 competition and antitrust specialists worldwide, for six years. Samantha has extensive experience in all areas of EU and UK competition law. She is an experienced merger control specialist and regularly advises the boards of UK plcs in numerous industry sectors on antitrust compliance matters. Samantha is Co-Chair of the Antitrust Committee of the International Bar Association and is a Non-Governmental Adviser, UK Competition and Markets Authority at the International Competition Network. Samantha was ranked as a “Global Elite Thought Leader” by Who's Who Legal.

Kyriakos is the Herbert Smith Freehills Brussels office Managing Partner and EMEA Regional Head of Practice for Competition, Regulation and Trade. He has over 20 years' experience advising clients across all aspects of EU and UK competition law, including merger control, cartels, antitrust investigations and advice, distribution agreements, dominance, and competition litigation before the EU courts. He also advises client on foreign direct investment issues. Kyriakos has advised clients across a broad range of industries with particular expertise in TMT, pharmaceuticals, energy and mining, financial services, transport and consumer goods. He works closely with the Herbert Smith Freehills network to provide advice on multi-jurisdictional transactions and investigations. Kyriakos brings particular expertise through his background as an EU official, having held positions as a European Commission official at DG Competition’s merger task force and then as a legal assistant in the cabinet of the President of the General Court of the EU. He is currently a vice chair of the IBA's Antitrust Committee.

Mariam is a Fulbright Scholar and Partner in the Dubai office of Al Tamimi and a member of the Competition and Antitrust practice. Mariam advises international clients in all sectors on a range of areas including merger control proceedings, cartels, antitrust investigations and advice, distribution agreements, dominance, and competition investigations. Mariam specializes in antitrust and regulatory aspects of global M&A transactions covering the Middle East and handles complex multijurisdictional competition matters and has advised companies in a broad range of sectors. Mariam was recognized by Asian Legal Business among the top 15 female practitioners in Asia. Mariam is a member of the IBA-Merger Control working group and Anti-Trust section of the ABA.

Nicolas Bremer specialises in advising on merger control and antitrust matters in the MENA region and Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia in particular. Nicolas is a partner of the regional law firm BREMER where he heads the firm's Antitrust & Merger Control team. He oversees the firm's Riyadh and Cairo representations. Nicolas advises international corporates and PE firms on merger control and antitrust matters, mergers and acquisitions transactions, and joint ventures in the MENA region. He works in English, Arabic and German language. Prior to joining BREMER Nicolas worked for several international law firms in Berlin, Cairo, Dubai and London. He holds a PhD, which he obtained his work on the regulation of large-scale freshwater development in the Near and Middle East under international and domestic law. He frequently publishes on the law of the Near and Middle East and lectures as a visiting professor at the GUC (Cairo, Egypt).