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Riza is a banking and finance lawyer with 22 years of experience, specialising in banking and finance, business rescue, insolvency and restructuring transactions.
He co-founded the law firm, CMS South Africa, having previously headed Banking & Finance at the South African branch of an international law firm.
Riza advises on complex high-value domestic cross-border banking and finance transactions and leads large multi-disciplinary teams in complicated debt restructuring, business rescue and refinancing transactions.
His sector expertise is broad and includes financial services, mining and commodities, retail and Islamic finance.
Market praise includes "very responsive and proactive", with one client attesting: "The quality of his legal work is top class". Clients also consider him "a leading expert on Islamic transactions and structuring". He is described by peers as "a versatile lawyer" who is "practical in his approach". Another source added: "I find Riza one of the few people who is able to excel and use different aspects of the law to make a solution work" - Chambers, South Africa, 2024.
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Riza is a partner in the business restructuring and insolvency team.
With more than 22 years of experience in banking and finance, Riza is acutely aware of how to bring financially distressed companies and lenders to the table and mutually beneficial agreement.
Riza leads large multi-disciplinary teams in complicated debt restructuring, work outs, business rescue and refinancing transactions. He acts for a number of development financiers on a range of finance transactions and understands development finance well.
Riza’s experience in financial restructuring and insolvency spans a variety of industries, in particular construction, telecoms, financial services, media, real estate, retail and hospitality and leisure.