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Shaheena A. Carrim

Overview

Shaheena founded SC Legal in January 2022 after 20 years in the Chambers of Sir Hamid Moollan KC G.O.S.K., where she built a practice in dispute resolution and transaction advisory across a wide range of the law.

Shaheena brings courtroom discipline to her transactional work: every deal is structured and documented with an eye to how it would hold up if challenged. She takes on major assignments, leads them herself and delivers quickly. She has worked with many local entrepreneurs and groups and understands the pressures of their industries.

Bio

Shaheena has appeared before most courts and tribunals in Mauritius and before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. She is particularly well regarded in commercial, corporate and real estate litigation and civil cases. Her practice covers corporate and M&A, insolvency and restructuring, civil, tax, banking, structured finance, financial services, securities, family, real estate, insurance, labour, trust, arbitration, administrative, compliance, intellectual property, technology and environmental law. She represents clients before regulatory and investigatory bodies and acts for clients in energy, real estate, distribution and manufacturing, telecommunications, financial institutions and construction.

Shaheena leads the firm's M&A work. She has advised on acquisitions and disposals of domestic companies and banks, takeovers, amalgamations, demergers, share buybacks and redemptions, and group restructurings, and has run legal due diligence on banks, insurers and management companies. She brings to each transaction a litigator's view of where deals fail and drafts to prevent it. She contributed the Mauritius chapter of the International Comparative Legal Guides: Mergers & Acquisitions 2024.

She has extensive experience of the global business framework and advises on all corporate matters in the global business sector. She acts for Mauritius domiciled funds investing in India, Asia and Africa and for licensed entities on their investments, using companies, limited partnerships, protected cell companies, trusts and foundations. She advises on listings, amalgamations, share dealings, offerings on and off the market and migrations to and from Mauritius, and conducts compliance audits. She has advised on loans, debentures, bonds and other securities, and advises trustees and settlors on trusts, including the migration of trusts.

Shaheena is a licensed Insolvency Practitioner and takes appointments as liquidator, administrator and receiver. Her insolvency practice draws on her litigation and corporate experience: she advises stakeholders on restructuring and recovery options and acts in insolvency proceedings before the Supreme Court.

Shaheena has built a technology law practice in virtual assets, blockchain and tokenisation, and in artificial intelligence.

Shaheena sits as an independent director on the boards of a number of Mauritian companies, including a company listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. Her board experience shapes her advice: she knows what directors need from their lawyers in a transaction or a crisis.

Qualifications

  • State of Mauritius Laureate (Economics Side): 1995.
  • LLB (Second Class Honours, First Division): Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 2000. High Distinctions in Banking Law, Law of the Internet, Taxation Law, Torts, Economics, Evidence and Administrative Law.
  • Arthur Andersen Prize for Taxation: awarded for the best results in Taxation Law.
  • Bar Vocational Course: Council of Legal Education, Mauritius, 2001. Ranked first with a distinction in all subjects.
  • Awards: the Professor Fernand Bouland Cup (best results in criminal law) and the Professor Raymond Hein Memorial Prize.

Certificates

  • Harvard VPAL FinTech online short course, April 2024.
  • Certificate in Green and Sustainable Finance, Chartered Institute of Bankers, September 2024.

Boards and associations

  • Board Member (current): Financial Services Commission, the regulator of non-bank financial services in Mauritius.
  • Board Member (current): BDO Solutions Ltd, an outsourcing services company.
  • Board Member (current): MFD Group Limited, a company listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius Ltd.
  • Vice Chairperson (current): Muslim Family Council.
  • Chairperson (former): National Savings Fund Technical Committee, set up under the National Savings Fund Act.
  • Board Member (former): Capital Asset Management Ltd, a subsidiary of the State Investment Corporation, the investment arm of the Government of Mauritius.
  • Member (former): Information and Communication Technology Council.
  • Director (former): National Housing Development Company Ltd.

Experience

Mergers, acquisitions and corporate

  • Advising a number of corporates on their mergers, acquisitions and restructurings, and drafting the transaction documents, including share purchase agreements.
  • Advising on amalgamations and takeovers in Mauritius, including related listings on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius and the DEM.
  • Advising an insurance company on the buyback and redemption of minority shareholdings.
  • Advised a leading manufacturer and distributor of retail items on its amalgamation and restructuring plans.
  • Advised an international hotel group on its demerger from a Mauritian hotel group.
  • Acted for a major Mauritian conglomerate on the legal due diligence for its takeover of a number of domestic companies, including banks.
  • Advising a local bank on the disposal of its shares.
  • Conducted the due diligence for the acquisition of a reinsurance company.
  • Conducting due diligence on banks and management companies.
  • Advising state-owned investment bodies on equity and quasi-equity investments in a number of domestic companies.
  • Advising on the migration of companies and funds to and from Mauritius.

Funds, capital markets and finance

  • Advising Mauritius domiciled funds, and investors investing in India, Africa and Asia through collective investment schemes and closed-end funds set up in Mauritius.
  • Advising Mauritius licensed funds investing in the renewable energy sector and in distressed assets in India and Asia.
  • Advising applicants for licences from the Financial Services Commission, including Investment Dealer, Management Company and virtual asset service provider licences.
  • Advised a leading telecommunications company on an IPO on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius Ltd.
  • Advised a leading bookmaking company on an IPO on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius Ltd.
  • Advised a property developer on a MUR 4,000,000,000 bond issued by way of preferential offer under the Securities Act 2005.
  • Advised a local bank on a MUR 2,000,000,000 Multi Currency Medium Term Note Programme.
  • Acted as legal adviser to a borrower on an unsecured USD 500 million financing transaction.
  • Acted for an international bank on a financing transaction involving Mauritian and Singapore based entities.
  • Advising international financial institutions on ISDA agreements.
  • Acted for a foreign lender on Islamic financing transactions, in particular Murabaha agreements.
  • Advising global business companies on the financial services laws of Mauritius, including licensing requirements, sanctions and the Securities Act 2005, and drafting financing, transaction and shareholders' agreements and constitutive documents.
  • Conducting AML/CFT compliance audits for licensed entities.

Insolvency and restructuring

  • Acting as liquidator of a Mauritius company in a creditor's winding up.
  • Acting before the Supreme Court for a major fund promoter on insolvency issues.
  • Acted before the Supreme Court on the sanction of a scheme of arrangement.

Commercial, real estate, tax and employment

  • Advised a state-owned electricity utility on the negotiation of power purchase agreements and related issues.
  • Advising an international airline on Mauritian law issues.
  • Advising a property developer in Mauritius.
  • Advising real estate developers on Property Development Scheme projects, and landlords, tenants and domestic companies on real estate issues.
  • Advising a number of entities on Indian tax issues arising under the India-Mauritius double taxation treaty.
  • Advising domestic companies on their day-to-day legal needs, from contracts and employment issues to court representation.
  • Advising employers and employees in disciplinary proceedings.
  • Assisting clients with the registration of trademarks in Mauritius.

Litigation

  • Acted before the Supreme Court in a tortious claim between foreign parties which established the jurisprudence on the jurisdiction of the Mauritius courts in such cases.
  • Acted for a multinational technology company before the Supreme Court on the enforcement of an English law guarantee.
  • Appeared for a state-owned electricity utility before the Independent Review Panel in a number of challenges to tender awards.
  • Acted for a local SME against the Mauritius Revenue Authority for the refund of tax wrongly paid, where the principle of enrichissement sans cause was first applied.
  • Acted before the Supreme Court in a successful challenge to a means of execution of a tax claim by the Mauritius Revenue Authority.
  • Acting before the Assessment Review Committee and the Supreme Court in tax cases challenging the imposition or legality of tax assessments.
  • Appeared for large conglomerates on appeals concerning Building and Land Use Permits for hotel construction, from the District Council and the Environment and Land Use Appeal Tribunal up to the stage where leave to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was refused.
  • Appeared before the Environment and Land Use Appeal Tribunal on an aquaculture project.
  • Acting in civil claims for recovery of debts, including challenges to saisie arrêt applications.
  • Acting in judicial review proceedings challenging the findings of Commissions of Inquiry.
  • Acted for an international aviation group on redundancies arising from the pandemic.
  • Acting in divorce and custody cases, including an appeal against a decision granting custody of a child under the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction Act.

Publications and speaking

  • Mauritius chapter, International Comparative Legal Guides: Mergers & Acquisitions 2024.
  • Regular speaker at conferences organised by the Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies, Mauritius.
  • Speaker on the Mauritius global business framework at a conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Rankings

  • Individually ranked in the Chambers and Partners Global Guide 2026 (Dispute Resolution).
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