Akshay Naran

Primary Focus & Experience

Akshay's practice is a broad mix of complex and cross-border private M&A, public company takeovers and schemes, joint ventures, carve-outs and reorganisations. He also provides corporate advisory, governance and general UK-listed company advice. Akshay’s varied experience is across a number of sectors, in particular the financial services and infrastructure sectors. 

Prior to joining Milbank, Akshay worked at Freshfields LLP in London and at King & Wood Mallesons in Australia. 

Recent private M&A and JV experience:

• Advising Piraeus Bank S.A. on its acquisition of a 90.01% stake in the parent company of Ethniki Insurance from CVC Capital Partners Fund VII
• Advising HSBC on its €1.6 billion disposal of its French retail banking business to CCF, a subsidiary of My Money Group (which is under the control of funds advised by Cerberus Capital Management)*
• Advising Compass Group on its acquisition of CH&CO from Equistone Partners Europe, management and other shareholders for an initial enterprise value of £475 million, with an additional earn out over two years following closing*
• Advising Apple on its acquisition of photo editing company Pixelmator*
• Advising APG and Global Infrastructure Partners on the consortium arrangements of its acquisition of a stake in Peel Ports Group from DWS Infrastructure*
• 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 portfolio 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 Nasdaq-listed ICU Medical, Inc and its related share buyback programme*
• Advising Fuller, Smith & Turner on its £250 million Class 1 Disposal of its beer business to Asahi*
• Advising Mercuria Energy, a global commodities trading house, on its buyback of ChemChina's (China's largest chemical group) minority stake in Mercuria and related joint venture arrangements*
• Advising TCV as lead investor of Allica Bank's £100 million Series C investment round*
• Advising Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board in relation to its portfolio activities relating to Birmingham and Bristol Airport*
• 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, an online betting and gaming company in Georgia*

Recent public M&A experience:

• Advising DWS Infrastructure on its £595 million cash acquisition of Stagecoach Group plc, following a competitive public to private process*
• Advising GXO Logistics, Inc. on its £965 million cash and shares acquisition of Clipper Logistics plc*
• Advising Barrick Gold Corporation on its $18 billion 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 IPO and capital raising 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 £1.68 billion IPO and premium listing on the London Stock Exchange*
• Advising Cosan S.A. in respect of its $1.15 billion IPO of Raizen S.A., its renewable energy joint venture with Royal-DutchShell on the B3 S.A. Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão*
• Advising DAZN Group on a number of equity investment matters*

*Matter completed prior to joining Milbank