John Lazarus

Banking & Finance, Project Development, Capital Markets, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructuring Practice Groups

 

John Lazarus leads the firm’s Banking & Finance, Project Development, Capital Markets, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructuring practice groups. His core expertise lies in structuring and advising on complex financing transactions, project development mandates, public and private capital raising, corporate reorganizations, and transactional advisory for banks, corporates, investors, and development finance institutions.

John has extensive experience in advising on bilateral and syndicated loan transactions, structured finance, debt restructuring, project finance, infrastructure funding, Islamic finance, and corporate lending. He regularly acts for lenders, sponsors, borrowers, arrangers, trustees, and facility agents on cross-border and domestic finance transactions across multiple sectors including energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, telecoms, and financial services.

He has advised on the establishment and documentation of bond and note programs, including domestic and international offerings such as Eurobonds, green bonds, commercial papers, and subordinated debt issuances by Nigerian banks and corporates. His capital markets experience includes advising on public offers, private placements, shelf registrations, securitisations, and rights issues. He also provides ongoing regulatory compliance and listing advisory to issuers and trustees.
John has played a key role in numerous mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and corporate restructurings—ranging from financial institution consolidations to sector-based M&A involving FMCGs, energy, telecoms, and fintech. He routinely advises on share acquisitions, shareholder arrangements, joint ventures, and group reorganizations, and he is particularly noted for delivering legally sound, tax-efficient, and regulatorily compliant structures.

In addition to transactional mandates, John provides corporate governance and business advisory services to boards and management teams on directors’ duties, shareholder relations, corporate structuring, equity participation, and shareholder activism. He also advises on regulatory reforms, licensing regimes, prudential guidelines, insolvency risks, and fiduciary obligations across banking, securities, and corporate law frameworks.

His clients include domestic and international banks, investment firms, institutional lenders, private equity funds, corporates, pension fund administrators, and government-owned enterprises. He has worked alongside key financial regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) on various mandates requiring detailed regulatory insight.

John is known for his deep commercial understanding, meticulous transaction execution, and ability to distill complex regulatory and financial arrangements into practical, risk-conscious legal solutions. He regularly contributes to thought leadership in financing and transactional law and is a trusted advisor in the evolving landscape of financial and corporate regulation.