Intellectual property rarely makes the headline of an African deal announcement. It is usually the reason for the price. Meridian has tracked 99 IP-linked transactions and matters across the continent between October 2024 and October 2026, from brand licences carved out of brewery sales to broadcast rights, payments software and vaccine technology transfer. The full record is now public in the Africa IP Rankings Tracker. Three patterns stand out.
1. The biggest IP deals are not labelled as IP deals
Only 20 of the 99 records carry a disclosed value, together worth about US$8bn. The largest are corporate transactions in which the intellectual property travels quietly with the shares or stays behind under licence.
Canal+’s acquisition of MultiChoice, valued at about US$3bn and completed in 2026, is in substance a purchase of content rights, channel brands, the Showmax platform and Irdeto’s content-security technology. Competition remedies were delivered through a separate licensing company structure, and the advisers reported on the transaction include Bowmans, Webber Wentzel, Freshfields, Linklaters, Milbank and Walkers.
Diageo’s agreed sale of 65% of East African Breweries to Asahi, reported at US$2.3bn in December 2025, works the other way round. The Guinness and Johnnie Walker brands stay with Diageo and are licensed back to the business across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The same structure appeared in Diageo’s earlier exits from Guinness Ghana Breweries, sold to Castel in January 2025, and Guinness Nigeria, sold to Tolaram. For lawyers, the long-term brand licence is the document that will outlive the share purchase agreement.
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2. Software is the most common IP asset changing hands
Forty of the 99 records involve software and platform IP, against 26 involving copyright and broadcast rights, 17 trade marks and 15 patents. Most are fintech acquisitions in which a bank or listed group buys a platform rather than builds one: Nedbank’s acquisition of iKhokha, Capitec’s acquisition of Avafin, Lesaka’s acquisition of Adumo, nCino’s acquisition of DocFox, and e-Finance’s acquisition of Tamweely in Egypt.
These deals turn on diligence that African IP practices are not always asked to lead: chain of title to code, open-source exposure, data-protection consents and the transfer of licences that sit with founders rather than companies. Where advisers are disclosed, they are more often corporate and M&A teams than specialist IP firms.
3. Patent work is concentrated in health
Patent-led transactions in the record cluster around medicines and vaccines: voluntary licences administered by the Medicines Patent Pool, amendments to the mRNA technology transfer programme centred on Afrigen in Cape Town, and Aspen’s licensing activity. Contentious patent work follows the same pattern. Adams & Adams’s ruling for Astellas against Cipla in July 2026, and its role in the Astellas Xtandi proceedings, are the most significant patent matters on Meridian’s IP record.
Where the evidence is thin
South Africa appears in 37 records, Nigeria in 21, and Kenya and Egypt in 13 each. Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Uganda and Tanzania appear only a handful of times. OAPI and ARIPO filing work, which is where much of Africa’s day-to-day IP practice happens, almost never surfaces in public deal reporting at all.
That gap shapes how Meridian ranks IP firms. Our Africa IP ranking gives most of its weight to named, dated matters with a confirmed role, and treats awards and directory tiers as supporting evidence only. On that basis Adams & Adams leads, followed by Spoor & Fisher, ENSafrica, Von Seidels and Eldib & Co. Below second place, the ranking rests on recognition and reach rather than matters, and we say so on the table.
What it means for firms and clients
- For corporate clients: brand licences, content rights and software title are now price-setting terms in African M&A. They deserve specialist review, not a schedule at the back of the SPA.
- For IP practices: the firms that publish their matters, with dates, clients and roles, are the firms that can be ranked on evidence. Recognition without a record is hard to verify.
- For regulators: competition authorities in South Africa and Kenya are already shaping how IP moves in large transactions, through licensing remedies and conditions.
Firms that acted on any of the transactions in the tracker can submit their role for verification. Submission does not guarantee publication.
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