IFLR 1000
The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms

Kuwait, like most jurisdictions in the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council), has felt the impact of the global credit crunch, particularly in the normally lucrative area of overseas investment. "Obviously because of the credit crunch the amount of work is reduced," says one partner, while another added: "Kuwait has been hit very, very hard, most of the work is bankruptcy work....

Kuwait, like most jurisdictions in the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council), has felt the impact of the global credit crunch, particularly in the normally lucrative area of overseas investment. "Obviously because of the credit crunch the amount of work is reduced," says one partner, while another added: "Kuwait has been hit very, very hard, most of the work is bankruptcy work."

However, Kuwaiti lawyers are keen to draw parallels with Dubai when searching for optimism. "Real estate and construction is down but it's not as bad as Dubai," says one partner, "values are down but we never had the boom so you didn't have those lofty heights to fall from."

In the M&A sector there was more optimism that deals would still be done. "Lending work pretty much dried up, but what replaced it was restructuring work and the mergers and acquisitions," explains one partner. "What's happened is you have attractive processes, and for people who had some money there you had an uptick on M&A; it substituted for the work we were doing in cross-border work."

Project finance has also been slow as liquidity and options dry up. "The amount of project finance has reduced, there is general scepticism," says one partner.

A positive step being taken by the government is in the form of a buyout package, following countries like the US and the UK, where the government guarantees new bond issuances. However lawyers are sceptical about the effectiveness of this new plan: "I don't expect the package to have an impact; the banks don't view it as that great in terms of expanding their portfolios."