Koos Pretorius

Koos Pretorius is an External Consultant at ENS, having joined the firm in 1991 and remained with it for 35 years until early 2026. His practice focuses on Mergers and Acquisitions.

For most of his tenure, he was an executive director in ENS' corporate commercial department. He served as corporate department head from 2002 to 2018 and thereafter for several years led the corporate commercial business unit of the firm, where he focused on client relationships with certain key clients and assisted the firm and its clients with strategic initiatives.

Koos acted for sector and industry leaders in renewable energy, oil and gas, financial services, banking, insurance, media, telecommunications, retail, wholesale, mining, transport and logistics, property, gaming, hospitality, agribusiness, eco-conservation and wildlife.

He advised on hostile takeover bids, complex schemes of arrangement, and assisted with several transactions where companies and their shareholders conclude more sophisticated arrangements aimed at achieving specific strategic outcomes. His experience includes due diligence investigations, commercial contracts, company law, regulatory compliance, corporate structuring, corporate governance, rights offers and listings, partnerships, incorporated and unincorporated joint ventures, shareholder arrangements, rights offers and listings.

Over the period 2018 to 2026, Koos focused extensively on inbound ESG initiatives for foreign investors, family offices and private equity funds targeting eco-conservation and wildlife areas in Southern Africa.

He currently consults to ENS and its clients on a variety of projects and transactions, and continues to specialise in M&A and private equity, assisting PE funds, family-owned and closely held businesses and foreign investors on their ventures into Africa. His focus remains eco-tourism and wildlife, although his work includes more general corporate and commercial services.

He is a past member of the Ethics Committee of the Cape Law Society and has presented modules of the LLM programme on advanced company law at the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape.

He holds a BA and an LLB from Stellenbosch University and completed the Leadership in Professional Service Firms programme at Harvard Business School. He is admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa.

He is recognised by Chambers Global Guide for Corporate Commercial: M&A, by IFLR1000 as Highly Regarded for M&A, by The Legal 500 EMEA for Commercial, Corporate and M&A, by Who's Who Legal for Mining, and by Best Lawyers for Corporate Law and M&A, having been named its Lawyer of the Year for M&A in 2019.