Ninette is a partner in our antitrust, competition and trade group in Asia and leads our practice in China. Ninette's practice focuses on antitrust-related work and foreign investment review in China, Hong Kong and the Asia-Pacific region.
Ninette assists clients on the antitrust aspects of M&A, joint ventures, strategic alliances, distribution and intellectual property-related arrangements, and other competitive conduct. Ninette also assists clients with investigations (including cartels and abuse of market dominance issues) and on foreign investment and subsidy control matters.
Ninette spent over 10 years in Brussels assisting clients on EU and multijurisdictional matters before relocating to Asia in 2009. Ninette has acted on some of China’s and Asia-Pacific’s most complex and significant merger control matters (including remedies negotiations) and antitrust investigations across a range of sectors. Clients include multinational companies, state-owned enterprises, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and private equity active across a range of sectors, including technology, automobile, aviation, shipping, healthcare & life sciences, consumer goods and energy.
Ninette combines international experience with on-the-ground local knowledge to deliver effective solutions for clients in global transactions, and to devise operational antitrust risk strategies.
Ninette is ranked in Band 1 in leading legal directories. She is a frequent speaker at international conferences on antitrust and foreign investment matters and has authored several publications.
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- Advising Korean Air on its proposed c. $1.3bn acquisition of rival full service carrier Asiana Airlines in several jurisdictions across the APAC region including China, resulting in a complex set of structural and behavioural remedies including in China - Winner of Merger Control Matter of the Year - Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa at GCR Awards 2023.
- Advising Maersk Line on its €3.7bn acquisition of rival container shipping line Hamburg Sud, resulting in novel behavioural remedies in China - Winner of Merger Control Matter of the Year - Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa at GCR Awards 2018.
- Advising AB InBev on its £78.4bn acquisition of SABMiller. Ninette also co-led the team advising AB InBev on the sale of SABMiller’s minority interest in CR Snow for $1.6bn - one of the first 'fix-it-first' remedies in China; and InBev on its acquisition of Anheuser-Busch, the first remedy decision under China’s Anti-Monopoly law.
- Advising Hapag-Lloyd on its merger with the container liner shipping activities of Chile’s Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores, creating a company with pro-forma annual sales of $12bn in 2014, and on its acquisition of United Arab Shipping Company.
- Advising Volkswagen AG in relation to its $2.6bn co-investment with Ford Motor Co. in autonomous vehicle technology company Argo AI.
- Advising Volkswagen (China) Investment Co., Ltd. on its major investments in Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group, China’s largest M&A deal in the electric vehicle sector to date and an important project under China's ‘mixed ownership’ reform of Chinese state-owned enterprises.
- Advising Continental on its $1.9bn acquisition of Ohio-based rubber and plastics company Veyance Technologies from the Carlyle Group.
- Advising Cinven, KKR and Providence on their consortium investment relating to a €3bn voluntary public bid for the entire share capital of MÁSMÓVIL IBERCOM.
- Advising LG Corp. and LG Electronics on their €1.1bn acquisition of leading automotive lighting and headlight systems provider ZKW Group (at the time LG’s largest acquisition to date).
- Advising Brazilian pulp and paper company Suzano Papel e Celulose on its $11bn acquisition of rival Brazilian pulp manufacturer Fibria Celulose, combining the world’s two largest suppliers of a type of hardwood pulp.
- Advising Novartis on its complex interconditional strategic transactions with GSK including the establishment of a consumer healthcare joint venture.
- Advising Boehringer Ingelheim on its acquisition of Sanofi’s animal health business, part of a wider €22.8bn asset swap between the two companies.
- Advising on a landmark settlement with China’s National Development and Reform Commission for a major container shipping line – the largest investigation to date in China.
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Education
- University of Exeter, UK (LLB)
- Free University of Brussels, licence spéciale (LLM)
Professional qualifications
- Admitted to the Brussels Bar
- Admitted to the Bar of England and Wales (non-practising)
- Foreign Registered Lawyer in Hong Kong
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