With more than 20 years of GCC and US experience, he has accumulated sizable expertise in the areas of banking and finance, mergers and acquisitions and large-scale infrastructure and energy projects. He represents the majority of the financial institutions based in the state of Kuwait in all facets, including basic bilateral facility agreements, syndicated loan transactions (conventional and Sharia-compliant) and project finance.

Within the banking arena, he has developed strong and professional relationships with most of the lenders he represents as well as the relevant banking and investment regulatory bodies. In addition, since the financial crisis of 2008, Saleh and his team have advised both foreign and local creditors on most of the debt restructurings incurring in Kuwait with respect to investment and related type companies.

In the corporate arena, Saleh has closed on a significant number of GCC. and MENA merger and acquisition deals in various industries including energy, pharmaceuticals, finance, real estate, communications and aviation. He has also represented many private equity groups in many of these acquisitions developing and building a good relationship with many GCC private equity managers over the years.

Finally, Saleh has also been involved in most of Kuwait’s large infrastructure and oil projects such as power generation plants, water desalination plants and sewage and waste water projects, in the context of both public-private partnerships and more traditional structures. On various transactions, he has alternatively represented the state of Kuwait, private sponsors and project lenders depending on the particular deal.

In addition, he has also been voted by his peers as one of the world’s leading Islamic finance lawyers conducted by the IFLR for 2010 and as a leading lawyer by Islamic Finance News (IFN) for 2011 and is the official IFN Kuwait correspondent on Islamic banking and finance. He is also referenced by the Legal 500 for 2011 as a leading individual in the corporate and M&A section for the state of Kuwait.

Saleh is a regular speaker in Kuwait-law-based seminars, including more recent presentations in the areas of debt restructuring, capital markets and PPP projects.