Chris Milliken

Practice Areas

Chris Milliken is a Counsel in our Ho Chi Minh City office, where he serves as the senior international lawyer. He has led several high-profile transactions in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, showcasing his expertise in corporate and finance law. Chris's practice spans mergers and acquisitions, private equity, joint ventures, financing, energy, and capital markets transactions. While he primarily focuses on Vietnam, his work across Asia has given him deep insights into M&A trends and practices regionally. He is particularly interested in public deals, large-scale M&A, complex investments, and energy matters.

Chris has dedicated significant resources to offshore listings and capital markets, frequently speaking at seminars and authoring numerous articles on these topics. Recently, Chris was the keynote speaker at a seminar on Hong Kong Listings, organized by our Freshfields Vietnam and Hong Kong offices on March 7, 2024. He provided valuable advice on navigating Vietnam’s evolving securities regimes and suggested compliant structures for issuers to meet both local and international regulations. This guidance offers Vietnam-incorporated companies a pathway to raise funds on prestigious platforms like the HKEX. Prior to this, he spoke at a Citibank seminar on fundraising and overseas listing considerations for tech companies in Vietnam, attended by over 100 tech start-ups.

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.

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 over US$1.4 billion.

- A leading international financial institution on the divestment of its stake in a local bank.

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

- A private equity investor on a novel, complex, and unprecedented bond restructuring transaction with a major real estate developer in Vietnam.

- CVC Capital Partners on its investment in a majority stake of Vietnam-based Phuong Chau Trade and Investment JSC, the operator of Phuong Chau-branded maternal and infant care hospitals in southern Vietnam.

- A leading Asian private equity firm on its investment in a group of Vietnamese companies engaged in media and paid-TV services.

- International investors on their US$250 million investment through 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 in a 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.

- 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 US 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 US investment bank on the restructuring and further investment in a Vietnamese mobile money company.

- A major private equity firm on its acquisition of a floriculture company which currently operates a huge flower growing farm and a network of four distribution centres in major cities of Vietnam and the recent successful divestment from this company.

- A private equity fund on its acquisition of a restaurant chain operator with 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.

Education