Rad El Treki

Real Estate & Construction and Hotels & Leisure

Real estate, construction, and hospitality are at the forefront of transformation across the Middle East – reshaping cities, driving investment, and demanding increasingly sophisticated legal frameworks.

In the June edition of Law Update, we take a closer look at the legal shifts influencing the sector – from Dubai’s new Real Estate Investment Funds Law and major reforms in Qatar, to Bahrain’s push toward digitalisation in property and timeshare regulation. We also explore practical issues around strata, zoning, joint ventures, and hotel management agreements that are critical to navigating today’s market.

As the landscape becomes more complex, understanding the legal dynamics behind these developments is key to making informed, strategic decisions.

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Eyes
On 2025

Legal Updates in
Middle East & North Africa

2025 is set to be a game-changer for the MENA region, with legal and regulatory shifts from 2024 continuing to reshape its economic landscape. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, and Bahrain are all implementing groundbreaking reforms in sustainable financing, investment laws, labor regulations, and dispute resolution. As the region positions itself for deeper global integration, businesses must adapt to a rapidly evolving legal environment.

Our Eyes on 2025 publication provides essential insights and practical guidance on the key legal updates shaping the year ahead—equipping you with the knowledge to stay ahead in this dynamic market.

The leading law firm in the Middle East & North Africa region.

Rad El Treki

Partner, Head of Office - Bahrain

Biography

Rad is a UK qualified Partner and heads the firm’s Bahrain Office with over 20 years of experience practicing in the UK and across the GCC Region.

Rad leads the Bahrain office’s highly-ranked Corporate practice. He delivers a diversified and broad corporate commercial offering with particular expertise in corporate finance, corporate structuring, group re-structurings, cross border M&A and JVs. Additionally, Rad has a wealth of experience advising on the corporate aspects of big-ticket state mandated project financings, particularly within the energy / O&G sector. His extensive experience includes the start-up and scale-up space, advising entrepreneurs, incubation and acceleration centres, private equity firms, and venture capitalists in Bahrain and the wider region. He also regularly delivers related presentations, mentoring, coaching, and workshops.

Rad’s clients include domestic and international public and private companies, sovereign wealth funds, international conglomerates, private equity funds, venture capital firms and a wide range of start-up and scale up entities, including a number of the region’s ‘Unicorns’.

Rad qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales in 2005 whilst working for a large UK regional law firm. From there, he moved to the Middle East, joining a first-tier firm in Qatar advising on some of the most significant projects in the country, before moving to the Riyadh office of a leading international firm, there after joining Al-Tamimi & Company in 2016.

Rad is ranked as a “Leading Individual” by Legal 500 and a “Ranked Lawyer” by Chambers & Partners for Corporate, Commercial and M&A, and is named as one of the 50 leading lawyers in the MENA region by Thomson Reuter’s Asia Legal Business in 2021, 2022. and 2023.

Recent Experience

Advised BFC Group on the sale of its banking, financial, and money transfer subsidiaries to Al Ansari Financial Services PJSC. Deal valued at over $200M, including group entities across the Middle East and India.
Advising Bapco Energies on the monetization of its fully owned Bahrain Saudi Pipeline Company, which holds the sole crude oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. The deal involved structuring a lease and leaseback structure with Blackrock.
Acting as local counsel for a major Islamic wholesale bank in a multi-million-dollar asset portfolio acquisition (corporate financing portfolio, customer deposits, and real estate assets located in various jurisdictions) (deal value USD500M+).
Advising a regional sovereign wealth fund with respect to its potential role in the Bahrain Government’s rooftop solar photovoltaic project (total capacity of 72MWac) to be mounted on public sector building rooftops including the Bahrain Formula 1 Circuit, University of Bahrain, Bahrain International Exhibition & Convention Centre and Al Dana Amphitheatre, together with the extensive roll-out of EV charging stations.
Al Dur II Integrated Water & Power Plant (IWPP): Advising the lenders as local lead counsel in relation to the corporate related aspects of the development, ownership and operation of the Al Dur II IWPP project, one of the largest project financings in Bahrain and the GCC in recent years (project value c. US$1.5bn).
Representing Rental Solutions & Services Limited (RSS) a leading tech-enabled temporary and backup power solutions provider with operations in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on its sale to Sancta Capital via issuance of a USD43M Shariah-compliant senior secured debt instrument.
Representing Koch Chemical Technology Group Saudi Arabia Limited (part of the Koch Global Group) on its acquisition of the operating assets of Titanium Steel & Manufacturing Co Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Steel Pipe Co (a company listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange).
Local Counsel advising Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Company (SAFCO) on the Bahrain-related elements of its proposed US$1.2bn acquisition from SABIC of interests in various agricultural nutrient assets, including SABIC’s interests in Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) in Bahrain.