About Giles Cooper
Giles is managing partner of Allens' Hanoi office, with over two decades’ experience advising investors in Vietnam, focusing on energy and infrastructure development and financing. He has acted on many nationally significant energy projects, and has been at the forefront of the renewable energy boom, advising developers, lenders and both the buy and sell side on numerous M&A transactions.
He qualified to practise law in New Zealand and is registered as a foreign lawyer with the Ministry of Justice in Vietnam. He speaks and writes regularly on energy and Vietnam investment matters, and is co-Chair of the Vietnam Business Forum’s Governance and Integrity Working Group and an Advisory Board member of the Vietnam Institute of Directors.
Giles is recognised as a Leading Partner for Projects and Energy and Corporate M&A by Legal 500 2025.
His experience includes:
- DFI group: advising on its guarantee to support the issuance of VND1,000 billion green bonds by IDI Corporation, a leading seafood manufacturer in Vietnam—the first-ever aquaculture corporate green bond in Asia and the second-largest aqua-sector deal of the DFI group worldwide.
- Foreign investor: advising on acquiring a minority interest in a clean water supply project in the north of Vietnam.
- VAPCO: advising on project development, financing and construction of the Vung Ang II coal-fired BOT power project.
- SeaTown Master Fund: advising on its highly structured joint equity investment in one of Vietnam's largest retail platforms and supermarket chains, The CrownX.
- Consortium of investors: advising on the preparation of the bidding package for investment in a mega LNG to power project in Vietnam.
- Korean Consortium: advising on the development of an LNG to power project in Central Vietnam.
- International Finance Corporation: advising on loans to finance the acquisition of renewable energy assets and a waste-to-energy plant in Vietnam.
- Bangkok Bank: advising on multiple financings of wind and solar power energy projects in Vietnam (total aggregate capacity around 850MW).
- Lender group: advising on financing supported by MIGA PRI of transport infrastructure in Vietnam.
- Japanese trading house: advising on strategic planning for greenfield port sector investment in central Vietnam.
- Actis: advising this leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure on the Vietnam aspects of its acquisition of a majority stake in Levanta Renewables, a Southeast Asia-focused renewable energy platform with 300MW of onshore wind power projects under development in Vietnam.
- Australian investment group: advising on the joint development and proposed acquisition of a 49% stake in a project company developing 2 x 30MW wind power projects in Vietnam.
- Spanish renewable energy company: advising on multiple M&A projects in the wind and solar power sector (total involved capacity around 800MW).
- Norwegian renewable energy company: advising on a portfolio of corporate-offtake rooftop solar power projects across Vietnam.
- Japanese renewable energy company: advising on the development of an approx. 110MW wind power project in Vietnam.
- Singapore investor: advising on the joint development and acquisition of 2 x 49 MW PV solar projects in Quang Tri province, Vietnam. This included full regulatory and permitting support, tax and corporate structuring work, preparing EPC and O&M contracts, and financing work.
- Sembcorp Utilities: acting as lead counsel to a sponsor of the 225MW gas-fired BOT Myingyan power project—a first-of-its-kind project in Myanmar—including full advice and support on all project and financing agreements. This project was awarded Project Finance International’s ‘Asia-Pacific Deal of the Year 2017’ and IFLR’s ‘Project Finance Deal of the Year 2018’.
- USAID-funded V-LEEP project: acting as lead legal advisor to develop and implement a 'direct power purchase agreement' pilot project for renewable energy projects.
- Large international investment group based in Singapore: advising on its proposed acquisition of a Vietnamese commercial bank under the State Bank of Vietnam’s special control.
- Large international investment group based in Singapore: advising on its plan to acquire a majority stake in a Vietnamese private commercial bank.
- Danish private equity fund: acting in relation to multiple acquisitions and exits in Vietnam targets (sectors include medical, agriculture, food and beverage and manufacturing).
- Singapore incorporated commercial bank: acting in relation to its plan to acquire up to 100% of the charter capital of a State-owned Commercial Bank in Vietnam, which was a private commercial bank in distress acquired by the State Bank of Vietnam for VND0.
- Tien Phong Bank: advised this leading Vietnamese private commercial bank in relation to its plan to issue US$200 million Tier 2 high-yield Regulation S international bonds with subsequent listing on the Singapore stock exchange.
- Large US mutual fund: advising on its participation in a highly structured IPO by a large private Vietnamese commercial bank.
- Vietnamese State-owned company: advised in connection with reviewing foreign law-governed project finance documents for two major maritime infrastructure projects in Northern and Southern Vietnam, in view of determining the potential liabilities of the company and its subsidiaries.