François Renard, an antitrust specialist, has managed and spearheaded Allen & Overy’s Greater China Antitrust Practice since November 2008. He has more than 20 years of experience of advising Western and Asian clients on APAC (including China), EU and other national competition laws. François has worked on complex and award-winning merger matters. François is qualified as an EU lawyer and Hong Kong solicitor. He regularly speaks and writes on the subject of antitrust and is recognized as a leading lawyer in numerous directories.
In China, François secured MOFCOM’s conditional clearances including for the acquisition of AZ Electronics by Merck KGaA (which won the GCR’ Merger Control Matter of the Year – Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa in 2015), the acquisition of Samsung’s hard disk business by Seagate (which won the GCR’s Matter of the Year in 2012) and the acquisition of Alcon by Novartis (the first PRC conditional clearance under the PRC 2010 remedy rules). He has also been the leading lawyer acting as supervisory trustee in several proceedings. He has been the chief representative of leading companies on their responses to the antitrust investigation launched by NDRC in the infant milk, financial, pharmaceutical, medical devices, and hotel sectors.
In Hong Kong, François has been assisting MNC and domestic companies in several investigations launched by the HK Competition Commission and to comply with the HK Competition Ordinance. He has actively cooperated with and commented on the Guidelines prepared by the Competition Commission. He is the Vice President of the HK Competition Association.
