Transaction law for South African business deals.
Agreements drafted to be clear, enforceable and aligned with what you actually negotiated — not with what a template assumed.
Free basic valuation returned within 24 hours. Formal engagements scoped and fixed-fee quoted up front.
Midpoint R9.8m · Manufacturing · R24m turnover
Handshakes don't survive contact with a dispute.
Business transactions are governed by regulation at several levels at once. Successful negotiation needs guidance from people who understand how those rules bear on compliance and on strategy.
Contracts that hold
An agreement is only worth what a court would do with it. Clauses are drafted to be clear and enforceable, and to say what the parties actually meant rather than what a template assumed.
Who carries what
Warranties, indemnities and liability caps decide who bears the cost when something surfaces after closing. Negotiating them deliberately is far cheaper than discovering them by accident.
Deals that stand up
Transactions are structured to meet South African company law, competition regulation and sector-specific statutes, which reduces the risk of a post-deal challenge unwinding the work.
What we draft and review.
Businesses need agreements covering everything from formation and governance through to merger, acquisition and closure.
Share purchase agreements
The full sale of a company's shares, including conditions precedent, warranties and completion mechanics.
Asset sale agreements
Sale of a business as a going concern or of specific assets, with the liabilities carefully carved out.
MOUs and heads of terms
The commercial shape of a deal recorded early, with binding confidentiality and exclusivity where it counts.
Shareholders' and partnership agreements
Governance, deadlock, drag and tag rights, and what happens when one party wants out.
Restraint and confidentiality
Non-compete and non-disclosure undertakings drafted to be reasonable enough to actually be enforced.
Employment and contractor agreements
Terms for staff and freelancers, including the intellectual property and restraint provisions most templates get wrong.
Most deals are lost in the clauses nobody negotiated, not the ones everybody argued about.Pravata
Legal due diligence and risk management.
Before a deal closes, we establish what the target actually owns, owes and has promised.
Legal due diligence
Corporate records, contracts, licences, litigation history, intellectual property and regulatory filings are analysed to identify legal risk before closing. It builds a picture of the target's operations, culture and exposure that the financials alone will not give you.
Risk allocation
We negotiate the warranties, indemnities and limitations of liability so that risk falls fairly between the parties, and so that the party best able to control a risk is the one carrying it.
Deal structure
Working alongside the financial analysis, we help select the structure that fits the commercial intent, and make sure the legal terms mirror what was actually agreed rather than drifting from it.
Compliance and approvals
Company law requirements, competition thresholds and sector-specific consents are identified early, so approval timelines are built into the deal rather than discovered against a deadline.
Policy, governance and the paperwork that prevents disputes.
Employment and training manuals
Clear internal documentation reduces the disputes that arise from expectations never having been written down.
Trade-secret and IP policies
Protecting what the business knows — particularly where value sits in process, client relationships or code rather than in assets.
Data and confidentiality protocols
Practical handling rules for information, aligned to POPIA obligations rather than copied from elsewhere.
Compliance frameworks
Governance structures that support long-term growth and make the business materially easier to sell when the time comes.
Questions we're asked most.
Do I need a lawyer if we already agree on the price?
Price is the part most people negotiate and the smallest part of most disputes. Warranties, restraint clauses, what happens to staff, who carries historic tax risk and what the seller must still do after closing are where deals actually break. Agreement on price is the beginning of the drafting, not the end of it.
What is the difference between an MOU and a sale agreement?
A memorandum of understanding records the commercial shape of a deal and is usually only partly binding — the confidentiality and exclusivity clauses typically bind, the commercial terms typically do not. The sale agreement is the enforceable contract. MOUs are useful for keeping momentum, but they get relied on far beyond what they were drafted to carry.
Can you review an agreement the other side has drafted?
Yes, and it is common. A first draft is written for whoever paid for it. We mark up what is unbalanced, explain the commercial effect of each clause in plain terms, and set out which points are worth fighting for.
Do you handle the tax side as well?
Deal structure and tax are inseparable, so structuring advice is given alongside the drafting. Where a mandate needs a formal tax opinion we work with your tax practitioner, or bring one in.
Do you work outside the Western Cape?
Yes. South African company law applies nationally, so we act on transactions in Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban, Johannesburg and elsewhere without needing to be in the room.
An indicative range, back within 24 hours.
Give us your sector, last year's turnover and your rough operating profit. We'll come back with a range and the assumptions we used to get there.
- A range, not a single number — with the workings
- Read by a person before it reaches you
- No obligation and no third-party sharing