Michael is a corporate finance and regulatory advisory practitioner with over 11 years’ experience advising financial institutions, securities issuers, regulated intermediaries, and regulators across East Africa. His practice focuses on capital raising, securities issuance, mergers and acquisitions, and financial services regulation spanning capital markets, banking, payments, and insurance.
He has acted on landmark transactions including significant banking sector consolidations, and first-of-kind structured products. His experience includes a secondment to a major multilateral development finance institution, where he advised on investment structuring and regulatory matters across multiple African jurisdictions.
Michael is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a Certified Secretary.
Relevant Experience:
Capital Markets – Securities Issuance and Structuring
- Advised a publicly listed infrastructure investment company on an NSE rights issue and a pioneering debt-to-equity conversion structure navigating overlapping capital markets, competition, and banking regulatory regimes.
- Acted for a multilateral development finance institution on its KES 10 billion subscription for medium-term notes issued by a government-backed mortgage refinancing entity.
- Advised a UK-based clean energy finance company on the regulatory and tax framework for a receivables financing platform facilitating off-balance-sheet funding for solar distributors, combining elements of securitisation, digital finance, and clean energy regulation.
- Acted for digital and traditional lending institutions on successive commercial paper and short-term note issuance programmes, advising on disclosure obligations and CMA compliance.
- Advised a publicly listed diversified financial services holding company on the redemption of its KES 6 billion listed bond.
- Advised a development finance organisation on the establishment of Kenya’s first OTC market for fixed income securities trading, co-drafting market rules, licensing framework, and operational procedures.
- Advised a leading East African banking group on the merger of its investment bank and trustee subsidiaries, designing the documentation package and regulatory approval roadmap.
- Conducted corporate governance and compliance reviews for major listed financial services groups and a leading beverage manufacturer, aligning structures with CMA and CBK corporate governance guidelines.
- Advised fund management and impact investment firms on CMA licensing applications, preparing compliance manuals and clarifying regulatory requirements for blended-finance vehicles.
- Advised a licensed fund manager and trustee on responses to regulatory inquiries relating to investor complaints in a collective investment scheme, recommending remedial actions and supporting regulator engagement.
Banking and Capital Transactions
- Advised a leading East African banking group on its takeover of a state-affiliated commercial bank.
- Acted on a commercial bank group reorganisation to form a CBK-approved non-operating holding company structure with interests in several banking and non-banking subsidiaries.
- Acted for an emerging commercial bank on its licensing, private rights issue, and represented minority shareholders in the subsequent sale of shareholding to a leading MENA-region bank, cementing the acquirer’s entry into Kenya’s banking market.
Insurance Regulatory Advisory
- Advised a global insurtech platform on structuring embedded protection products to avoid classification as insurance, analysing product structure against statutory definitions and issuing legal opinion enabling commercial launch.
- Advised a global insurance group on non-admitted insurance regulation and reviewed its suite of standard policy documents for compliance with Kenya insurance law requirements.
- Advised global and regional insurers on broad compliance matters across multiple subsidiaries, conducting comparative legal analysis and guiding clients on regulatory reporting and approval processes.
Digital Finance and Fintech Advisory
- Advised digital lenders and payment service providers on licensing, AML/CFT obligations, and data protection requirements under the National Payment System regime, preparing regulatory filings and compliance frameworks.