Ulrike Naumann

Ulrike Naumann is a Partner at Bowmans, heading the South African Finance Practice, specializing in Banking and Finance Law. She advises on secured and syndicated lending, structured finance, preference share funding, mezzanine finance, acquisition finance, property finance, leveraged finance, and debt capital markets transactions.

Ulrike has significant experience in complex debt restructuring and private equity‑related transactions. Notable matters include advising on the unbundling and restructuring of Imperial Holdings Ltd's logistics and motor business with a refinancing of over ZAR 20 billion; advising multiple financial institutions as lenders' counsel on the Nampak refinancing transaction with a deal value in excess of ZAR 4 billion; advising on the refinancing of Pioneer Foods' debt package with a deal value in excess of ZAR 4.5 billion; and advising Investec Asset Management, Sanlam, and Nedbank on the complete restructure of The House of Busby's capital structure. She has worked in South Africa, England, and Germany.

She holds B.Com and LL.B degrees (both cum laude) from Stellenbosch University and a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford. She is fluent in English, Afrikaans, and German.

Ulrike has been consistently recognised as a leading banking and finance practitioner: ranked in Band 1 in Banking & Finance by Chambers Global (2026), as a Leading Partner for Banking and Finance by The Legal 500 for 10 consecutive years (2017‑2026), and as a Highly Regarded Lawyer for Banking by IFLR1000. She was also named one of IFLR1000's Women Leaders (2018‑2020, 2024‑2025).