LAWYER PROFILE
Gautam Agarwal

Gautam Agarwal

Greater China Region 2026

Chambers ranking badge
Chambers ranking badge

Ranked in 1 practice area

About

Provided by Freshfields

Greater China Region

Practice Areas

Gautam Agarwal is a counsel in the firm’s finance group and is based in the Hong Kong office. In addition to his broad finance practice across various regions, Gautam also leads the India Finance Practice of the firm.

Gautam has over 14 years of specialist experience acting on a broad range of cross-border financing transactions, including advising private equity sponsors, private credit funds, corporates, financial institutions and sovereign wealth funds on some of the largest and most complex leveraged acquisitions in the South East Asia and South Asia regions. He also has a wide range of general banking and finance experience, including leveraged finance, fund finance, equity-backed lending and general structured lending.

Work Highlights

- Blackstone on multiple transactions, including the margin loan financing (and subsequent refinancings) in connection with its investment in the listed Embassy Office Parks REIT in India (the first offshore margin loan of its kind in India), the margin loan financing in connection with its investment in Nexus Select Trust REIT, the financing in relation to its subscription of H shares convertible bonds in a Hong Kong-listed company and the margin loan financing in connection with its investment in Mindspace Business Parks REIT

- Hillhouse on various margin loan and fund level financings, including its structured investment in a listed company in the PRC

- Advent International on multiple transactions, including the leveraged financing for the acquisition of Suven Pharma, the unitranche leveraged financing for the buy-out of Bharat Serums and Vaccines, the leveraged financing for the acquisition of Manjushree Technopack, the margin loan financing in relation to its investment in Crompton Greaves and the financing in relation to its investment in an end-to-end engineering solutions company

- Brookfield Asset Management on multiple transactions, including the margin financing backed by its units in Brookfield India Real Estate Trust

- KKR on multiple transactions, including the leveraged financing for its acquisition of Ness Digital Engineering, the leveraged financing (and subsequent refinancing) for its acquisition of EuroKids pre-school chain in India and the margin loan financing in connection with its investment in a healthcare group listed in India

- BPEA EQT (formerly Baring Private Equity Asia) on multiple transactions, including the leveraged financing for the take-private of Hexaware, the leveraged financing for the acquisition of a controlling stake in Coforge (formerly NIIT Technologies) and the leveraged financing of the take-private of Ginko International (the largest take-private consumer transaction in Taiwan at that time)

- TPG and a sovereign fund on the financing in relation to their minority stake acquisition in a Vietnamese group

- Carlyle on the acquisition of HCP Global, a leading Chinese packaging firm, from Baring Private Equity Asia

- Apax on various margin loan financings in connection with its investment in various portfolio companies

- Bain Capital Private Equity on multiple transactions, including the financing in connection with its investment in a listed bank in India, the financing in connection with its investment in an end-to-end engineering solutions company head-quartered in South-east Asia and various dividend recapitalisation and refinancing transactions for its portfolio companies across the Asia-Pacific

Note: the recent work highlights also include representation prior to joining Freshfields

Chambers Review

Provided by Chambers

Chambers Greater China Region

Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms) - China

Up-and-coming Individual
Up and Coming

Individual Editorial

Gautam Agarwal enjoys a healthy reputation in the market, and is often engaged to act as lender's counsel in leveraged financing transactions and debt refinancing matters. He also leads the firm's India finance practice.

Strengths

Provided by Chambers

  • Gautam is very strong technically. He finds a good balance between protecting banks' interests and being commercial enough to get the deal done.

    Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)Chambers Greater China Region
  • Gautam Agarwal is really thorough and very quick. He is available almost 24/7 which has been demonstrated since we started working with him. He is very prompt and quick in terms of responses.

    Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)Chambers Greater China Region

Ranked Individuals at Freshfields (28)

China

  • Profile image of Daniel French
    Daniel French

    Banking & Finance: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Celia Zhou
    Celia Zhou

    Banking & Finance: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Daniel French
    Daniel French

    Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Celia Zhou
    Celia Zhou

    Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Gautam Agarwal
    Gautam Agarwal

    Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Grace Huang
    Grace Huang

    Capital Markets: Equity (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Richard Wang
    Richard Wang

    Capital Markets: Equity (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Howie Farn
    Howie Farn

    Capital Markets: Equity (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of David Yi
    David Yi

    Capital Markets: Equity (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Ninette Dodoo
    Ninette Dodoo

    Competition/Antitrust (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Xin Liu
    Xin Liu

    Corporate Investigations/Anti-Corruption (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Robert Ashworth
    Robert Ashworth

    Corporate/M&A: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Edward Freeman
    Edward Freeman

    Corporate/M&A: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Alan Wang
    Alan Wang

    Corporate/M&A: Mainland China-based (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Yuxin Shen
    Yuxin Shen

    Corporate/M&A: Mainland China-based (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of John Choong
    John Choong

    Dispute Resolution: Arbitration (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Xin Liu
    Xin Liu

    Dispute Resolution: Arbitration (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Stephanie Chiu
    Stephanie Chiu

    Employment: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Tim Mak
    Tim Mak

    Financial Services: Contentious Regulatory (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Matthew O'Callaghan
    Matthew O'Callaghan

    Financial Services: Non-contentious Regulatory (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Tim Mak
    Tim Mak

    Financial Services: Non-contentious Regulatory (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Richard Bird
    Richard Bird

    Intellectual Property (International Firms)

    View profile
  • Profile image of Edward Freeman
    Edward Freeman

    Private Equity: Buyouts & Venture Capital Investment (International Firms)

    View profile

What success is built on

Chambers is the leading data and intelligence partner for the legal sector.

Explore thought leadership