Chris Milliken

Practice Areas

Chris Milliken is a Counsel in our Ho Chi Minh City office. He is the senior international lawyer in that office and has taken lead roles on several high-profile transactions in Vietnam and South-east Asia. Chris has a broad corporate and finance practice, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, joint ventures, financing, energy and capital markets transactions. While his practice is predominantly focused on Vietnam, he works on matters across Asia and has deep experience of M&A trends and practice both in Vietnam and elsewhere. He has a particular interest in public deals/large-scale M&A, complex/structured investments and energy matters.

Work Highlights

Chris’s recent work includes advising:

• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation on its strategic US$1.5 billion investment in Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank.

• Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group on its acquisition of a 49% stake in FE Credit – one of the largest consumer finance companies in Vietnam – for a reported consideration of over US$1.4 billion.

• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation on the divestment of 15% stake in Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank.

• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation on its investment in a Vietnamese digital payment company.

• International investors on their US$250 million investment by way of convertible bonds and non-convertible warrant-linked bonds issued by one of the leading public property development companies in Vietnam.

• A major US private equity investor on its investment of majority stake in Trans-Asia Hospital Investment Joint Stock Company.

• Quadria Capital on its investment in Con Cung, one of Vietnam’s leading mother and baby retailers.

• A private equity investor on a bond restructuring transaction with a major real estate developer company in Vietnam.

• CDH and Partners’ Group on the divestment of its investment in Golden Gate Group, a leading F&B company in Vietnam which currently owns 22+ brands and nearly 400 restaurants in 40 provinces throughout Vietnam.

• A U.S. private equity investor on its US$370 million pre-IPO investment in Techcombank, one of the largest commercial banks in Vietnam.

• A multinational energy company on the potential divestment of certain energy assets in the United States.

• Repsol S.A. on the sale of its entire interest in the Thang Long block in Vietnam, to Bitexco Energy, a subsidiary of the Bitexco Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Vietnam.

• Mekong Capital on its investments in and divestments from various companies in the consumer, pharmaceutical, tech, property, healthcare and transport sectors.

• A U.S. investment bank on the restructuring and further investment in a Vietnamese mobile money company.

• A private equity fund on its acquisition of a stake in a large Vietnamese flower and plant distributor.

• A private equity fund on its acquisition of a restaurant chain operator which operates 190 restaurants in major cities in Vietnam.

• A UK multinational school investor on its acquisition of international schools in Vietnam and the establishment of an international school in Hanoi.

• An alternative asset management firm on its divestment from a leading company in the agricultural sector.

Professional Memberships

Chris is a Vice Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam and is a member of the Vietnam Business Forum’s Capital Markets Working Group, the Power and Energy Working Group and the Investment and Trade Working Group. He is also a member of the European Chamber of Commerce Vietnam's Green Growth Sector Committee and the British Chamber of Commerce Vietnam’s Energy Working Group.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales.

Registered as a foreign legal practitioner with the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice.

Education