Profile details
About Akshay Naran
Akshay is a corporate and mergers and acquisitions Senior Associate in our Global Transactions practice in London.
Akshay has experience in public company takeovers and schemes, private M&A, joint ventures, reorganisations and equity capital raisings. He also provides corporate advisory support to listed companies, with a particular emphasis on corporate law, governance and listing rule matters.
Recent work
Recent public M&A experience
- Advising DWS Infrastructure on its £595m cash acquisition of Stagecoach Group plc
- Advising GXO Logistics, Inc. on its £965m cash and shares acquisition of Clipper Logistics plc
- Advising Barrick Gold Corporation on its $18bn all share acquisition of Randgold Resources Limited
- Advising DP World PLC (formerly listed in Dubai) in relation to its $13.9 billion takeover by Port & Free Zone World FZE (a wholly owned subsidiary of Dubai World)
Recent private M&A experience
- Advising HSBC on its disposal of its French retail banking business to CCF, a subsidiary of My Money Group. My Money Group is under the control, directly or indirectly, of funds and accounts managed or advised by Cerberus Capital Management L.P.
- Advising Compass Group on the acquisition of CH&CO for an initial enterprise value of £475m, with an additional earn out over the two years following closing, dependent on the profit growth of the business
- Advising a consortium comprised of APG and Global Infrastructure Partners on the consortium arrangements of its acquisition of a stake in Peel Ports Group
- Advising TCV in relation to its role as lead investor of Allica Bank's £100 million Series C funding round
- Advising Mercuria Energy, a global commodities trading house, on its buyback of ChemChina's (China's largest chemical group) minority stake in Mercuria
- Advising DAZN Group and Access Industries on the carve out and sale of a majority stake in its digital football-focused platforms business to Integrated Media Company, a TPG Capital porfolio company
- Advising Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board on its sale of indirect minority interests in Brussels Airport to New South Wales Treasury Corporation and the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan (through a StepStone managed vehicle)
- Advising Smiths Group plc on its £2.35 billion Class 1 Disposal of its Smiths Medical division to ICU Medical, Inc and its related share buyback programme
- Advising Fuller, Smith & Turner on its £250m Class 1 Disposal of its beer business to Asahi
- Advising Octopus Energy Group on its strategic partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
- Advising Flutter Entertainment plc on its acquisition of a controlling stake in Adjarabet
- Advising Borets International Limited in connection with the International Finance Corporation’s exit as a shareholder
- Advising the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund in its capacity as major shareholder of Piraeus Bank in relation to the disposal by Piraeus Bank of its Recovery Management Services Platform to Intrum and its related strategic partnership
Recent IPO experience
- Advising Deliveroo PLC on its £1.5 billion IPO and listing on the London Stock Exchange with a US-tech-style dual-class share structure
- Advising Trainline PLC on its initial public offering and premium listing on the London Stock Exchange
- Advising Cosan S.A. in respect of its c.$1.15 billion IPO of Raizen S.A., its renewable energy joint venture with Royal-DutchShell on the B3 S.A. Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão
Recent reorganisation experience
- Advising DAZN Group on a variety of equity investment and reorganisation matters
- Advising JAB Holdings on various reorganisation matters in relation to Pret a Manger
- Advising Deliveroo plc on various reorganisation matters
Prior to joining Freshfields, Akshay worked at King & Wood Mallesons, a leading Australian law firm where he advised clients across a number of sectors on a similar wide spectrum of M&A and capital markets transactions, which are not listed above.