Areas of expertise
Chris advises clients on their corporate matters including public M&A (in particular in the UK and Hong Kong markets), private M&A and fundraising globally, with particular experience in FIG (including insurance), IEN and technology sector transactions.
He has operated as a partner in both our London and Hong Kong offices.
Chris has been recognised in the leading legal directories of Chambers, Legal 500 and IFLR. He was voted into second place by partners in Financial News’ Partner of the Year Award in 2017 and listed in The Lawyer's Hot 100 the same year.
Chris sits on the financial services committee of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (insurance sub-committee).
Representative transactions include advising:
Public and private M&A
- S.F. Holding on its offer to acquire c51.8% of Hong Kong listed Kerry Logistics
- JCDecaux on the consortium bid to acquire Hong Kong listed Clear Media
- Arm on the $34bn takeover bid by SoftBank
- WS Atkins on the recommended takeover bid by SNC-Lavalin
- Platform Specialty Products on its UK takeover bid for Alent
- The Restaurant Group on the takeover bid by Apollo, and on the sale of its Leisure business to The Big Table Group
- Cadbury on the hostile US$19.5bn takeover bid by Kraft
- Viatris in connection with its divestiture of its OTC drugs business to Cooper Consumer Health
- IWG on its joint venture with Hysan in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area
- Reckitt Benckiser on the sale of its Infant Formula and Child Nutrition business in China to Primavera
- Hikma Pharmaceuticals on matters including its acquisition of Roxane from Boehringer Ingelheim
- GSK on matters including the divestment of certain non-core assets to Aspen Pharmacare, and its major three-part inter-conditional transaction with Novartis
FIG transactions (including insurance)
- PT Bank Syariah Indonesia TBK on its entry into of a bancassurance partnership with Prudential in Indonesia
- Prudential on matters including its US$2 billion share buyback, and the renewal of its Asian regional bancassurance arrangement with UOB
- Eastspring in relation to an agreement with Thanachart Bank to acquire a controlling stake in TFUND in Thailand
- Standard Chartered on matters including its acquisition of RBC Investor Services Trust Hong Kong, and its strategic investment in Linklogis, China’s leading supply chain financing platform, the establishment of the Olea joint venture with Linklogis, the strategic investment in Atome Financial, and the establishment of a Hong Kong hub entity structure to enhance capital and liquidity utilisation across the SCB Group
- Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group on its acquisition of a 74.9% equity stake in Fullerton India Credit Company in India
- Aviva on matters including its sale of Aviva Singapore to a consortium led by SingLife, and the sale of its stake in Blue Insurance in Hong Kong
- FWD on matters including its strategic investment in Gibraltar BSN Life Berhad in Malaysia, its US$3bn life insurance acquisition and bancassurance agreement with Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand, the sale of its bancassurance agreement with TMB to Prudential, and the distribution partnership with Klook, covering multiple jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region
- RSA Insurance on its 2014 rights issue (including a standby underwriting arrangement)
- Corsair and Centerbridge on a £600 million pre-IPO investment into the Williams & Glyn's banking business in the UK, by way of a convertible note
Infrastructure and Energy transactions
- United Energy Group in relation to its acquisition of Kuwait Energy
- Accys Technologies on various aspects of its financing of a project consortium established to build and operate two plants
- PTTEP on its acquisition of Cove Energy
- Ensco on a private placement of notes and concurrent exchange offers, and on a separate placing of shares
- Wood Group on its acquisition of Amec Foster Wheeler, and its acquisition of Production Services Network
- Talisman Energy on its acquisition of BP’s oil and gas exploration, production and transportation interests in Columbia for $1.9bn and the related arrangements with Ecopetrol
- First Reserve on its $1.2bn energy infrastructure joint venture with Petrofac
Tech transactions
- SB Investment Advisers on Vision Fund’s investment in Ping An Good Doctor and Ping An Healthcare Technology
- Arm on the sale of a 51% stake in its Chinese subsidiary, Arm China, in order to form a joint venture for Arm's semiconductor business in China
- Cable & Wireless Communications on its acquisition of Columbus International