Aramco's Law organization wins 'Energy and Resources In-House Team of the Year'

On March 31, Thomson Reuters’ Asian Legal Business (ALB) awarded the Aramco Law organization the Energy and Resources In-House Team of the Year, in its inaugural Middle East Legal Awards event. In addition to winning the major in-house team honor, Aramco’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) was recognized as Deal of the Year for the Equity Market category. 

ALB is owned by Thomson Reuters, a multinational media conglomerate, operating, among other prestigious brands, the Reuters news agency, and one of the world’s leading sources of intelligent information for businesses and professionals throughout the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East regions. ALB’s awards recognize the excellence and outstanding achievements of law firms, in-house legal teams, top deals, and dealmakers in the region. Notable previous winners of the ALB law awards include well-known entities such as Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Morgan Stanley. 

Recognition of best practices

“First, I would like to thank all members of our organization for the great efforts exerted in this difficult time of COVID-19. I am very proud of what we, as a company and organization, were able to achieve this past year,” said senior vice president and general counsel Nabeel A. Al Mansour. 

This award is yet another recognition of Law’s significant contributions in facilitating the historic milestones accomplished by the company.
— Nabeel A. Al Mansour

Al Mansour described the best practices and innovations adopted by the team to sustain performance and manage stakeholder expectations in the time of COVID-19. “Although the pandemic was — and still is — very difficult on everyone, the team stepped up to the challenge, delivering world-renowned deals and transactions. In terms of practices, we have set up taskforces comprised of senior attorneys from various subject matter expertise to bring forth quick resolutions to the novel legal issues presented by COVID-19,” he said, adding that Aramco was able to leverage its proactive business continuity plan and advanced technologies to provide a like-office experience to each member of the team to ensure uninterrupted support to the company’s operations.

Major projects highlighted

Some of the transactions that were recognized at this ceremony and other legal awards events include the Aramco IPO, which was the largest IPO in history. 

In addition, while the SABIC acquisition’s size is notable, the complexity of the transaction was where the efforts of the in-house team played a pivotal role. As part of the transaction, Aramco and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) filed for and obtained antitrust pre-notification clearances in 21 international jurisdictions prior to Aramco acquiring PIF’s 70% interest in SABIC (valued at approximately $69 billion) on June 16, 2020. 

Another award-winning transaction was the project financing for the Petronas-Saudi Aramco JV Companies in the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project. This project, which involved six export credit agencies, and 23 commercial banks, took about seven years to piece together.