Ahmet Kalafat

Ahmet is renowned for timely, proactive and clear guidance on legal, commercial and reputational risks resulting in high client satisfaction. He has 15+ years of banking & finance experience in Dubai, Istanbul and Jeddah. Before moving to Dubai, he worked in the legal department of the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and at an international law firm in Istanbul, Turkey.

He has substantial experience in both conventional and Islamic finance transactions and is very well regarded as a banking and finance lawyer. His experience extends to most areas of conventional and Islamic finance products and structures ranging from general corporate lending, bonds and Sukuk issuances and treasury products to trade, projects, margin facilities, pre-ipo financings, ECA, real estate and acquisition and leverage finance.

He regularly advises large GCC and multinational banks, private equity houses and governments, their related entities (GREs) and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) on complex domestic and cross-border finance transactions.

One of his other strengths is the Turkish market where he has developed a strong conventional banking and Islamic finance practice with established relationships with local Turkish banks and corporates.

In addition to Turkey, he regularly works on transactions covering a broader region including Africa, GCC, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Brunei and Singapore.

Ahmet completed his Graduate Diploma in Law at BPP Law School, London and his Legal Practice Course at The Oxford Institute of Legal Practice. He holds a Turkish law degree from Ankara University, Faculty of Law.

He is an English and Turkish qualified lawyer and is fluent in English and Turkish.