Mziwandile Ezra Clavis Davids (born 1964) is a South African

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

lawyer. He is chairman and senior partner at Bowmans.

Early life and education

Davids was born in 1964. He was born and raised in

De Aar De Aar is a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It has a population of around 42,000 inhabitants. It is the second-most important railway junction in the country, situated on the line between Cape Town and Kimberley. The juncti ...

, a small town in the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

, but attended school in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. As a teenager during the late

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

period, he was involved in anti-apartheid activism as chairman of the De Aar Youth Congress, an affiliate of the United Democratic Front; he was arrested and detained by security forces for six months in the mid-1980s. He attended the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

, where he completed a BA in 1989 and an LLB in 1992, and he also holds a higher diploma in tax from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

Legal career

After his graduation Davids completed his

articles of clerkship Articled clerk is a title used in Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries for one who is studying to be an accountant or a lawyer. In doing so, they are put under the supervision of someone already in the profession, now usually for two ye ...

at the firm of

Bowman Gilfillan Bowmans is a global law firm headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. Staffed by over 650 lawyers, it comprises nine offices in six African countries: South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, Mauritius, and Kenya. It is one of the so-called ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

; he spent the remainder of his career in the same office, excepting a secondment to Bowman's

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

office in the 1990s and a brief hiatus at

Linklaters Linklaters LLP is a British multinational law firm, headquartered in London. Founded in 1838, it is one of the four ' Magic Circle' law firms known for their corporate and financial expertise. It currently employs about 3,100 lawyers in 31 of ...

. He became chairman of Bowman's

corporate A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as "born out of s ...

and M&A practice before he was elevated to the firm's deputy chairmanship in March 2021. After the firm's chairman died of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

-related illness later that year, the partnership elected Davids as chairman with effect from 1 October 2021. He retained his prior responsibilities as head of corporate and M&A. Davids was South African counsel to

Bharti Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Telecommunications in India, telecommunications company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. ...

in its abortive $24-billion merger with MTN and also served as an adviser in negotiations towards the $107-billion

SABMiller SABMiller plc was an Anglo–South African multinational brewing and beverage company headquartered in Woking, England on the outskirts of London until 10 October 2016 when it was acquired by AB InBev for US$107-billion. It was the world's sec ...

–

AB InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian Multinational corporation, multinational Drink industry, drink and brewing company, brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. It is the largest brewer in the world, and in 20 ...

transaction and the $1.7-billion

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

acquisition of

Pioneer Foods Pioneer Foods is a South African packaged goods company which in March 2020 became a subsidiary of PepsiCo. It operates in South Africa as well as two other African countries and exports a number of its brands globally. The company's core busin ...

. He is a member of the board of South Africa's

Legal Resources Centre The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) is a human rights organisation based in South Africa with offices in Johannesburg (including a Constitutional Litigation Unit), Cape Town, Durban and Grahamstown. It was founded in 1979 by a group of prominent South ...

Honours

In the aftermath of the MTN–Bharti merger negotiations, Davids was named as South African DealMaker of the Year for 2009. He was named South Africa Lawyer of the Year at the Chambers Africa Awards in January 2022. In his practice area, he is ranked as a "star individual" by

Chambers and Partners Chambers and Partners (often noted elsewhere as Chambers & Partners) is a research firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that produces international rankings for the legal industry. Orbach and Chambers Orbach and Chambers Publishing Lim ...

and as a "market leader" by IFLR.

References

External links

Ezra Davids
at Chambers and Partners
Ezra Davids
at Bowmans {{DEFAULTSORT:Davids, Ezra Living people 1960 births 20th-century South African lawyers 21st-century South African lawyers People from Emthanjeni Local Municipality University of Cape Town alumni