Spotlight on: Monde Coto

Tell us about your career highlights to date?

One of my career highlights was my secondment to Anjarwalla & Khana in Nairobi, Kenya. At the time, a secondment to London was probably the most coveted secondment for most juniors at the South African firm I was at. I however had a very keen interest on getting more exposure to law firms and transactions across the continent and Anjarwalla & Khana with its pan-African outlook and reach was perfect.

I fell in love with Kenya during my time there, it felt like home and I built lifelong relationships.

Another career highlight was being the General Counsel for Naspers Foundry, which was the largest venture capital fund in South Africa at the time. I definitely think my time at Naspers Foundry sharpened me as a lawyer and getting to work closely with some of the top VC investors and founders was invaluable and continues to add great value and unique insights to my practice at Herbert Smith Freehills.

What are you most excited about in 2025?

The corporate team in Johannesburg is growing. Ziyanda Ntshona, joins in March 2025 as the head of the South Africa corporate team. I look forward to working with Ziyanda and the expanded corporate team. With the deep expertise and bench strength in the team, I am excited for the service offering we can afford our clients and to capitalising on opportunities across the continent and globally.

Talk to us about M&A and what you see coming in Africa in 2025?

I am optimistic when it comes to the M&A outlook for Africa in 2025. The past two years have been tough in respect of deal flow across the continent, as the high cost of capital, major geopolitical events and general global market uncertainty has suppressed M&A activity. However, in 2024 there were some green shoots as we saw deal value increase significantly when compared to 2023.

The increased deal value can be attributed to meaningful and complex big ticket deals taking place on the continent. Dealmakers still see a lot of opportunity in Africa and it has been great to collaborate with clients to find creative legal solutions which allow for buyers and sellers to find mechanisms to: (i) bridge the gap when it comes to valuation expectations; and (ii) appropriately allocate risk. This creativity has helped factor in market risks and uncertainty into the deal terms and allows for deals to continue to be done in a tough market.

M&A on the continent has been resilient and I am hopeful that we will see an uptick in M&A activity in 2025, as discussed in our recent Africa M&A report: Africa – Uncertain but hopeful.

What is the best advice ever given to you?

Very random, but while learning to wind surf in Mombasa, I was struggling a bit to keep my balance once on the board. My instructor, Hassan, would sense whenever I was overthinking and becoming unsettled and was ultimately about to fall back into the water; with perfect timing he would calmly say – "pole pole" or "kidogo kidogo". Pole pole means slowly slowly in Swahili and Kidogo kidogo means little by little in Swahili. Life has been unsettling, daunting and a bit off balance countless times since that lesson in Mombasa – it certainly helps when I remind myself – pole pole, kidogo kidogo.

Who are your dream dinner guests?

• Steve Biko – Anti-apartheid activist and founder of the black consciousness movement.
• Bill Gurley – Venture capitalist.
• Denzel Washington – Actor.