Professor Michael Katz is Chairman of ENSafrica, specialising in corporate and commercial law, including advising on M&A, competition law, tax law, privatisation and deregulation, project finance and non-recourse financing, public-private partnerships, and banking and financial markets.
Michael has led many large M&A transactions, both in South Africa and cross-border. He has also led some high-profile hostile bids.
Michael is an expert in broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) advisory, regulatory and compliance, including strategic planning, as well as structuring, implementing and regulating transactions across a wide variety of industries in accordance with the B-BBEE legislation.
Michael has deep expertise in all aspects of private equity, including legal due diligence in anticipation of acquisitions by PE funds of portfolio companies, portfolio and investment structuring, regulatory approvals, management incentives, recapitalisations following on altered investment horizons or other changed circumstances, disposal of portfolio companies, IPO’s and other exit strategies.
Michael is regularly quoted in the media and speaks at a number of international and domestic conferences and high-profile events. Michael publishes numerous articles, chapters and papers on legal and fiscal topics, including co-authoring the Butterworths Company Law Precedents (four volumes) and South Africa’s contribution to the United Nations’ and Harvard University’s Corporate Law Tools Project. Michael often presents papers on legal and fiscal topics, most recently presented a paper at 50th Anniversary of Commonwealth Lawyers in London on “Directors Duties, Shareholder Remedies and Auditor Duties”. In 1994, Michael was appointed by the New Democratic Government to chair the Commission of Inquiry into the Tax System. This was the so-called “Katz Commission” and we published nine Reports recommending a significant overhaul of the South African tax system in the light of the new democracy in South Africa and South Africa’s position in the world economy.
