Max Chapman

About Max Chapman

Max is an associate in our Abu Dhabi office and a member of the firm’s Global Transactions (Corporate) group. 

He advises on public and private mergers and acquisitions (ranging from buy-outs to minority investments), as well as joint ventures, consortium deals and co-investments. Max also has experience advising on securities offerings and listings and listing rules compliance work.

Prior to joining the firm, Max worked at a Wall Street firm in Hong Kong and trained at a top-tier Australian law firm in Sydney. Max has broad experience acting on deals involving targets in various regions (particularly APAC and EMEA) and sectors (including consumer and leisure, energy and infrastructure and financial institutions), for a variety of corporate and financial investor clients. He is qualified to practice in New South Wales, Australia. 

Recent work

• A number of regional sovereign wealth funds on a variety of high-profile acquisitions (ranging from buy-outs to minority investments) involving assets in Asia, Europe and the UK.
• Alpha Dhabi Holding PJSC on the acquisition of a significant minority stake in the Nammos Group, which owns and operates the iconic Nammos beach clubs in Mykonos, Dubai and other locations around the world, from MonteRock International Limited, which will remain invested in the JV after closing alongside Alpha Dhabi and the founders.
• A U.S. private equity investor on its bid to acquire a minority stake in the MENA franchise of a global consumer business from a local conglomerate.
• A sustainable infrastructure investor on its bid to acquire a water supply project, from a regional company that builds and invests in energy and water infrastructure.
•  An integrated regional oil and gas company on: (i) its joint venture with a Swiss commodities trading company for the offtake and marketing of crude oil; and (ii) its proposed joint venture with various regional strategic partners to design, construct and operate a high-capacity, onshore natural gas pipeline system for the transportation of natural gas from various upstream producers to domestic and export customers.
• *Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan as joint financial advisers to MBK Partners, on MBK Partners' US$1.1bn voluntary general offer under the Hong Kong Takeovers Code to to acquire CAR Inc., China’s largest car rental company.
• *A U.S. private equity investor on the auction sale process for the disposal of its minority investment in a privately-held Chinese insurer to two major European financial institutions.
• *The Series C investors in Ant Group, the digital payment arm of Alibaba, on their exit by way of participation in the high profile and aborted IPO and listing of Ant Group on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
• *Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, on its pre-IPO reorganisation and US$5.75bn spin-off listing of its Asia-Pacific business on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
• *Aqualand, a Chinese residential property developer, on its PIPE investment in McGrath Limited, an ASX-listed real estate agency.*

* Denotes experience gained prior to joining Freshfields.