C. Chakradaran (Chak) is a co-founder and former managing partner of Afridi & Angell. He was admitted and enrolled as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon and practiced there from 1966-1979. He was also a visiting lecturer in commercial law and chairman of the Board of Examiners at the Ceylon Law College in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He moved to Dubai in 1979.
Chak worked extensively with the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) during the initial set up advising on DIFC laws and legislation. He was also involved in reviewing numerous contracts and agreements for contractors and other service providers as the DIFC was getting built.
Chak has been associated with numerous high profile maritime casualty and litigation support matters, in which he has achieved immense success. He regularly handles instructions on behalf of P&I clubs, sole insurers and re-insurers, and is engaged in multi-jurisdictional dispute resolution including representation of international parties in arbitration proceedings. Such cases have involved concessions, construction contracts, contractual payment claims, banking matters, commercial agencies, partner disputes, trading of foreign currency futures and other investment matters.
Chak also advises on environmental regulations and issues relating to sovereign immunity and other laws affecting transportation, trade and commerce in the Gulf, Middle East and South Asia regions.
Amjad is a co-founder and former managing partner of Afridi & Angell. He has represented the firm’s international and local clients including banks and leading multinationals as well as private equity firms, in corporate, banking and financial transactions in Dubai and abroad. He also represented clients in relation to investments in the GCC, US, UK, and India.
Amjad has considerable experience advising private equity firms on cross border acquisitions. He has advised clients on private placements, management buy-outs and sale of businesses, and has advised clients extensively on cross border and GCC-wide acquisitions and divestitures. His most recent transactions involved the sale of the Fitness First franchise in the Middle East; the sale of a logistics company to Toll group, Australia and of another logistics company to Barloworld, South Africa. He also represented the National Bank of Fujairah in arranging acquisition financing for the purchase by the buyer of a majority interest in the Dubai Wire Group; and represented Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank in its acquisition of the retail and SME business of Royal Bank of Scotland.
In addition to his private equity and M&A practice, Amjad acted for several banks and borrowers in major restructurings of debt. He’s also been involved in launching various banking related products and services for clients in the UAE including the most recent Direct Debit System introduced by the UAE Central Bank in the fourth quarter of 2013.
