Ashurst further bolsters its MA practice with a double partner hire

Ratha, who joins Ashurst in Brisbane from Minter Ellison, specialises in advising on M&A, infrastructure and major and strategic government transactions. Drawing on her experience as a former secondee to the Australian Takeovers Panel, Ratha has acted on several landmark regulated M&A transactions, with an aggregate value in excess of $20 billion. She has also advised numerous state governments on significant infrastructure projects and other strategic transactions, including privatisations. Ratha also has experience advising on a range of other corporate and commercial matters including corporate restructures, consortium and shareholders’ agreements, ASIC and ASX regulation, and foreign investment regulation. 

 

Dan joins the Sydney office from Colin Biggers & Paisley, where he was co-head of their China practice. He is an Australian qualified lawyer with legal qualifications in both Australia and China. Dan has expertise in working for national and international clients on M&A matters across a range of sectors including energy and resource, property, financial services and healthcare industries. Dan practised in Australia, then mainland China and Hong Kong (for leading international firms) before relocating back to Australia. Dan is a fluent Mandarin speaker. Dan will lead our China practice in Australia and will work closely with partners Patrick Phua and Michael Sheng who are based in China.

 

Paul Jenkins, global managing partner commented: "We are delighted that Ratha and Dan are joining Ashurst. Ratha brings significant M&A capability and government privatisation/project experience to our Brisbane office and national corporate team, while Dan will play a very valuable role focussing on extending our premium services to major Chinese and Australian corporate clients in relation to inbound and outbound M&A transactions."

 

Mark Stanbridge, practice group lead, Australia added: "Ratha and Dan both have top-tier expertise which will complement our offering and so enhance our reputation in Australian and Asian markets. We are a M&A team that is growing significantly – Ratha and Dan are the fourth and fifth Australian based M&A partner hires in the last year." 

 

This follows the Australian M&A appointments of Shane Kyriakou and John Brewster as M&A partners in the Melbourne in February 2017, and the appointment of Nigel Deed as a M&A partner in the Sydney office in March 2017. 

 

Ashurst's Australian M&A team has had a very strong year - recently advising: