位于非洲中部的乍得，近期迎来了最大的一笔海外投资。此项由阳光国际（中国华油集团分公司）投资的150万美元的项目包括，位于首都恩贾梅纳的酒店建设和阳光国际工业园。基德律师事务所担任此项交易的法律顾问。

Chad may be known as the ‘Dead Heart of Africa’ due to its distance from the sea and its largely desert climate, but the landlocked country has benefited from one of its largest inbound investments seen in the past few years.

Valued at US$150m, the investment will see Soluxe – a subsidiary of China Huayou Group, owned by China National Petroleum Corporation – construct a hotel complex in the capital city of Ndjamena. There will also be an industrial zone located in Djarmaya, a city north of the capital, comprising a gas bottle plant, polypropylene material plant, purified water plant, liquid petroleum plant, office and apartment buildings and other infrastructure facilities.

A legal team from Gide Loyrette Nouel (GLN) led by Beijing-based partner Warren Hua was retained as Soluxe’s counsel on the deal. The team assisted the company with various legal and tax aspects pertaining to the investment project, including drafting deal documentation and liaising with the Chadian government. “As we can see from this deal, China’s investment in Africa has expanded from traditional oil, mining and gas to other sectors, such as the industry and hotel business,” said Thomas Urlacher, one of the lawyers who worked on the deal. “In the future, there will be different types of Chinese investment in Africa including into the finance sector.”

As well as Soluxe, other companies such as China National Petroleum Corporation, China Overseas Construction Group, Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation all have offices in Chad. According to China's Ministry of Commerce, more than 1,600 Chinese businesses are investing in 49 African countries in the mining, processing, commerce, agriculture, construction and manufacturing sectors. The MOC said that levels of trade between China and Africa reached US$114.8bn from January-November 2010; an increase of 40% year-on-year. ALB

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