Michael Katz

Michael Katz is the Chairman at ENS. His practice focuses on Mergers and Acquisitions, specialising in corporate and commercial law, including advising on M&A, competition law, tax law, privatisation and deregulation, project finance and non-recourse financing, public-private partnerships, and banking and financial markets.

Michael has led many large M&A transactions, both in South Africa and cross-border, and has also led some high-profile hostile bids. He is an expert in broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) advisory, regulatory and compliance, including strategic planning, as well as structuring, implementing and regulating transactions across a wide variety of industries in accordance with B-BBEE legislation.

He has deep expertise in all aspects of private equity, including legal due diligence in anticipation of acquisitions by PE funds of portfolio companies, portfolio and investment structuring, regulatory approvals, management incentives, recapitalisations, disposal of portfolio companies, IPOs and other exit strategies.

In 1994, Michael was appointed by the New Democratic Government to chair the Commission of Inquiry into the Tax System (the so-called "Katz Commission"), which published nine Reports recommending a significant overhaul of the South African tax system. He is a member of the King Committee on Corporate Governance and chairs the Specialist Committee on Company Law established in terms of section 191 of the Companies Act, 2008. He is a trustee of numerous trusts, including The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Constitution Hill Trust, Legal Resources Trust, Constitutional Court Trust, The Donald Gordon Foundation and The South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation.

He is a Visiting Professor in Company Law at the University of the Witwatersrand and a Course Director for Advanced Company Law. He holds a BCom and an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand, an LLM from Harvard Law School and an LLD (honoris causa) from the University of the Witwatersrand, and is admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa.

He is recognised by The Legal 500 EMEA in its Hall of Fame for Commercial, Corporate and M&A, by Chambers Global Guide as "Senior Statespeople" for Corporate: M&A, by IFLR1000 as an Expert Consultant for M&A and Project Finance, and by Best Lawyers for Corporate and M&A. He received the Chambers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021 and the African Legal Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.