Ryan Wessels

Ryan Wessels is a Partner in the Mergers and Acquisitions Practice at Bowmans in Johannesburg, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, and corporate finance. He has over 20 years' experience advising on domestic and cross-border M&A, corporate governance, and securities law, with significant expertise in strategic and public M&A, private M&A, black economic empowerment transactions, and joint ventures across sectors including energy, oil and gas, banking, mining, telecommunications, agricultural, automotive, and private security.

Ryan has advised Telkom SA SOC Limited on its sale of its masts and towers business to an Actis-led consortium (deal value ZAR 6.75 billion); TotalEnergies on the divestment of its 36.36% minority equity stake in National Petroleum Refiners of South Africa to Prax Group; Paine Schwartz Partners and AgroFresh Solutions on the acquisition of Tessara from The Carlyle Group (Private Equity Deal of the Year, DealMakers 2023); Aker Horizons on the acquisition of a majority equity stake in Mainstream Renewable Power; Harmony Gold Limited on its USD 300 million acquisition of certain mining and infrastructure assets from AngloGold Ashanti; and Tyco on its sale of the ADT South African business to Fidelity (deal value ZAR 1.9 billion). In the ECM space, he has advised on several initial public offerings, secondary listings, rights offerings, and equity placings, including the unbundling and separate listing of Zeda Limited from Barloworld, MTN Group's IPO of its Ugandan subsidiary, and Imperial Holdings' unbundling of Motus Holdings.

Ryan holds an LL.B and a Certificate in Law of Banking and Financial Markets. He completed a secondment at Deutsche Bank AG in 2008 and practiced at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York (2012–2013).

He has been ranked by Chambers Global for Capital Markets: Equity and Corporate/M&A, and recognised as a Highly Regarded/Leading Lawyer by IFLR1000 for his M&A and equity capital markets expertise. He was named "South African Partner of the Year" at the African Legal Awards 2024, shortlisted for Individual Dealmaker of the Year at the South African Dealmakers Awards 2023, and is the only South African lawyer who holds the office of trusteeship on the Securities Law Committee of the International Bar Association.