Gavin Raftery

Partner

Banking & Finance、Fintech

Professional Summary

Gavin Raftery is a partner of the firm’s Finance & Projects group, and he is currently the Co-Managing Partner of the Tokyo office. Gavin is also one of the heads of Baker McKenzie’s Global Fintech Initiative.

He has extensive experience practicing finance law in Australia, the UK and Japan. He is listed as a leading lawyer for Banking and Finance in Japan by Chambers, Legal500 and IFLR.

Practice Focus

Gavin focuses on acquisition finance, fintech, venture capital, financial services regulation, project finance, export and trade finance, derivatives, emissions trading, carbon finance, securitization, other structured finance transactions, and financial product development.

He acts for both Japanese and international clients on transactional and regulatory matters.

Representative Clients, Cases or Matters

Advised the arrangers and lenders on the financing of more than USD 100 billion of cross-border Japan-related acquisitions, including Asahi’s acquisitions of various AB InBev businesses and brands in Europe and Australia; SoftBank’s acquisitions of various businesses globally, including ARM Holdings and Sprint; Suntory’s acquisition of Beam; and multiple acquisitions in Japan by global private equity funds including Bain Capital, Permira, CVC, Apollo, EQT, TA Associates and Carlyle.
Advised AirTrunk on all aspects of the development and financing of its first data center project in Japan, the 300+ megawatt (MW) hyperscale data center campus in the city of Inzai, Chiba.
Advised US, Japanese, Singaporean and Spanish renewable energy companies on the legal/regulatory framework for and the acquisition, development and financing of more than 50 renewable energy projects in Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.
Advised US, Australian and Chinese Fintech companies on their establishment and operation of payment settlement businesses in Japan.
Advised various US, Europe and Asia Pacific based financial institutions and tech companies in connection with the launch of their online financial products and platforms in Japan.
Advised the Japanese financing subsidiaries of multiple global auto-makers on the securitization of more than USD 10 billion of auto-loan receivables across 30+ transactions in Japan.

Publications, Presentations and Articles

Publications

Co-author, Regulation of Fintech in Asia-Pacific, LexisNexis, July 2021
Co-author, Japan Chapter, Getting the Deal Through – Acquisition Finance 2021, Law Business Research Ltd, April 2021

Presentations

Presenter, “(R)evolution of Digital Money”, Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan – Deep Dive Series, March 2021

Admissions

Foreign Registered Lawyer (gaikokuho jimu bengoshi)~Japan(2007)
England & Wales~United Kingdom (2003)
New South Wales~Australia (1998)
Queensland~Australia (1998)

Professional Association and Memberships

Tokyo Bar Association – Member
Law Society of New South Wales – Member
Law Society of England and Wales – Member
Active member of many industry working groups and committees including the Industry Advisory Panel to the Joint Sustainable Finance Working Group established by the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum and the ASEAN Working Committee on Capital Market Development.