Profile details
About Koo Asakura
Koo is a Senior Associate in our antitrust, competition and trade group, based in the London office.
Koo advises on contentious and non-contentious EU, UK and multi-jurisdictional competition law matters, including merger control, foreign investment review, behavioural matters, compliance and litigation.
During his time at Freshfields, Koo has spent time on secondment with a leading tech platform and the firm's Brussels office.
Recent work
- Advising CK Hutchison on the merger control and foreign investment aspects of the combination of 3UK (its UK telecommunications business) and Vodafone UK.
- Advising a leading tech platform on various antitrust and regulatory matters.
- Advising CK Hutchison on the antitrust and foreign direct investment aspects of the sale of its large portfolio of c.24,600 mobile telecommunications towers in Europe to Cellnex in a €10bn transaction. This involved obtaining phase 2 merger clearance subject to remedies in the UK and Italy, unconditional merger clearance in Austria and unconditional FDI clearance in Italy and the UK.
- Advising Mars on various transactions in the veterinary sector.
- Representing CK Hutchison in its successful appeal to the General Court of the European Union annulling the European Commission's prohibition of the proposed acquisition of Telefonica UK (O2).
- Advising Flutter Entertainment (owner of the Paddy Power and Betfair brands) on its cross-border £10bn combination with The Stars Group (owner of the Sky Betting and Gaming and PokerStars brands) to create a leading global sports betting and gaming business – including obtaining unconditional Phase 1 clearance from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and coordinating the global merger control and foreign investment filings effort.
- Advising Rentokil on its completed acquisition of Mitie Pest Control, cleared subject to remedies by the Competition and Markets Authority at Phase 1.
- Advising Siemens on the EU merger control proceedings of the proposed transformative combination of Siemens' and Alstom's mobility businesses, which is now widely recognised as a landmark case for the European merger control regime.
Qualifications
University education
- BPP Law School (Legal Practice Course)
- University of Dundee (LLB)
Professional qualifications
- Solicitor, England and Wales