Bio
Melissa Naik is a transactional and advisory lawyer within the Corporate department of the Mauritius office of Appleby, and proficient at navigating complex transactions and providing strategic advice to ensure favourable outcomes for clients. She is committed to building long-term relationships based on trust and integrity with her clients.
She practises law in the following areas: corporate and commercial, restructuring and insolvency, mergers and acquisitions, financial services and regulatory, anti-financial crime, fraud and asset tracing, recovery of debt, fund structuring, migration of companies and insurance.
Melissa has also recently developed a practice relating to the prevention of financial crime and her recent work has included advice on matters such as fraud investigation and recovery of funds for companies and trusts, bribery in private organisations, protection of shareholders in the context of potential international fraud discovery, setting up and review of anti-money laundering frameworks for organisations. She is conversant with court procedures and will assist her clients in the event a commercial matter has a litigation aspect.
Melissa’s transactional and advisory practice includes advising both local and international clients on the establishment of and structuring of corporate vehicles in Mauritius, conducting due diligence of entities and issuing reports thereon, drafting of transactional and financing documentation, including those relating to corporate structuring, capital raising deals, securities offering and debentures, aircraft leasing and financing.
Prior to joining Appleby, Melissa qualified as a solicitor in England in the year 2000 and thereafter worked for a number of years in the financial services sector before starting to practise as a barrister in Mauritius in 2007 with exposure to various areas of Mauritian law, including civil, criminal, commercial, corporate, matrimonial, employment, insurance and intellectual property matters. She joined the firm in December 2016.
Melissa regularly conducts webinars of topics of interest and has been instrumental in the creation and development of the training institution in Mauritius which provides training courses to professionals.
She speaks fluent English and French.
Bio
Melissa Naik is a transactional and advisory lawyer within the Corporate department of the Mauritius office of Appleby, and proficient at navigating complex transactions and providing strategic advice to ensure favourable outcomes for clients. She is committed to building long-term relationships based on trust and integrity with her clients.
She practises law in the following areas: corporate and commercial, restructuring and insolvency, mergers and acquisitions, financial services and regulatory, anti-financial crime, fraud and asset tracing, recovery of debt, fund structuring, migration of companies and insurance.
Melissa has also recently developed a practice relating to the prevention of financial crime and her recent work has included advice on matters such as fraud investigation and recovery of funds for companies and trusts, bribery in private organisations, protection of shareholders in the context of potential international fraud discovery, setting up and review of anti-money laundering frameworks for organisations. She is conversant with court procedures and will assist her clients in the event a commercial matter has a litigation aspect.
Melissa’s transactional and advisory practice includes advising both local and international clients on the establishment of and structuring of corporate vehicles in Mauritius, conducting due diligence of entities and issuing reports thereon, drafting of transactional and financing documentation, including those relating to corporate structuring, capital raising deals, securities offering and debentures, aircraft leasing and financing.
Prior to joining Appleby, Melissa qualified as a solicitor in England in the year 2000 and thereafter worked for a number of years in the financial services sector before starting to practise as a barrister in Mauritius in 2007 with exposure to various areas of Mauritian law, including civil, criminal, commercial, corporate, matrimonial, employment, insurance and intellectual property matters. She joined the firm in December 2016.
Melissa regularly conducts webinars of topics of interest and has been instrumental in the creation and development of the training institution in Mauritius which provides training courses to professionals.
She speaks fluent English and French.
Work Highlights
Melissa has worked on a number of transactions for banking and financial institutions, private equity and hedge fund clients, including Goldman Sachs, Holcim, HSBC, Zola, Greenko, Bank of Singapore, D.E. Shaw Group, BOCI, Standard Bank of South Africa, Smile Telecoms and Al Nahla Group.
Some of the matters she has worked on include:
- Advice and assistance on the Mauritius law related aspects of the sale of part Holcim’s cement business to the Adani group for a price of USD6.4bn
o Role: leading counsel for Appleby Mauritius in relation to all Mauritius aspects of the transaction under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller - Advice and assistance to the consortium of lenders/banks in relation to the issue of notes by the Carlyle Group in order to raise USD1bn in debt
o Role: leading counsel for Appleby Mauritius in relation to Mauritius aspects of the transaction applicable to the lenders under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller. - Advice and assistance to the leading power and energy group ZOLA on its USD90m funding raise by way of equity and loans. The equity funding was led by a pool of investors which included TotalEnergies Ventures — a capital venture of TotalEnergies. The debt financing featured, amongst others, top energy lenders FMO and SunFunder, two entities known to provide debt capital to solar companies in emerging markets.
o Role: part of the Appleby team globally and leading counsel for Appleby Mauritius in relation to all Mauritius aspects of the transaction under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller - Appleby acted as lead legal adviser to SelfKey ,a transformative, blockchain-based digital identity solution, which allows individuals and companies to truly own, control and manage their digital identity. Appleby assisted on SelfKey’s offering, which raised a total of USD22m. The Appleby team devised and implemented an innovative corporate structure to conduct the sale and to govern the SelfKey network as the community grows.
o Role: part of the Appleby team globally and leading counsel for Appleby Mauritius in relation to all Mauritius aspects of the transaction under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller - Appleby Mauritius advised in a structured finance deal of USD363m 4.25 % senior secured notes due 2027 issued by Mauritius-based Clean Renewable Power (Mauritius) Pte. Ltd. The Issuer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hero Future Energies Asia Pte. Limited, an independent power producer in India with a renewable energy portfolio of more than 2 gigawatts of capacity, including assets under construction. The Notes were listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited.
o Role: part of the Appleby team in Mauritius in relation to all Mauritius aspects of the transaction under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller
Work Highlights
Melissa has worked on a number of transactions for banking and financial institutions, private equity and hedge fund clients, including Goldman Sachs, Holcim, HSBC, Zola, Greenko, Bank of Singapore, D.E. Shaw Group, BOCI, Standard Bank of South Africa, Smile Telecoms and Al Nahla Group.
Some of the matters she has worked on include:
- Advice and assistance on the Mauritius law related aspects of the sale of part Holcim’s cement business to the Adani group for a price of USD6.4bn
o Role: leading counsel for Appleby Mauritius in relation to all Mauritius aspects of the transaction under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller - Advice and assistance to the consortium of lenders/banks in relation to the issue of notes by the Carlyle Group in order to raise USD1bn in debt
o Role: leading counsel for Appleby Mauritius in relation to Mauritius aspects of the transaction applicable to the lenders under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller. - Advice and assistance to the leading power and energy group ZOLA on its USD90m funding raise by way of equity and loans. The equity funding was led by a pool of investors which included TotalEnergies Ventures — a capital venture of TotalEnergies. The debt financing featured, amongst others, top energy lenders FMO and SunFunder, two entities known to provide debt capital to solar companies in emerging markets.
o Role: part of the Appleby team globally and leading counsel for Appleby Mauritius in relation to all Mauritius aspects of the transaction under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller - Appleby acted as lead legal adviser to SelfKey ,a transformative, blockchain-based digital identity solution, which allows individuals and companies to truly own, control and manage their digital identity. Appleby assisted on SelfKey’s offering, which raised a total of USD22m. The Appleby team devised and implemented an innovative corporate structure to conduct the sale and to govern the SelfKey network as the community grows.
o Role: part of the Appleby team globally and leading counsel for Appleby Mauritius in relation to all Mauritius aspects of the transaction under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller - Appleby Mauritius advised in a structured finance deal of USD363m 4.25 % senior secured notes due 2027 issued by Mauritius-based Clean Renewable Power (Mauritius) Pte. Ltd. The Issuer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hero Future Energies Asia Pte. Limited, an independent power producer in India with a renewable energy portfolio of more than 2 gigawatts of capacity, including assets under construction. The Notes were listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited.
o Role: part of the Appleby team in Mauritius in relation to all Mauritius aspects of the transaction under the supervision of Group Managing Partner Malcolm Moller
Coverage & Insights
Melissa is a regular contributor to articles and webinars on Mauritius-related matters. Her articles can be found in the publications on the Appleby website. Other contributions include:
- The risk-based approach (webinar – 11 May 2021)
- Types of Security in Mauritius (webinar – 17 April 2023)
- Data Protection laws in Mauritius (webinar – 21 June 2023)
- MAURITIUS: Cryptocurrencies and virtual assets – how ready are we? (Step Journal, Issue 5 of 2022)
- Contribution to the Mauritius chapter to the Chambers and Partners’ “Fintech 2018” guide
- Africa Round Table – Speaker on “Offshore structures and strategy” (Insol conference – 10 November 2017)
- Marine Biotechnology Workshop – Speaker on “Way forward for establishing an enabling legal and regulatory framework in Mauritius” (Board of Investment conference – 13 November 2017)
- Ship Registry Workshop – Board of Investment – Speaker on “Positioning Mauritius in the Global Arena: effective measure to keep pace with international maritime obligations” (Economic Development Board conference – 20 February 2019)
Training courses delivered (laws of Mauritius)
- Induction Course on Anti-Money Laundering, Countering Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Financing
- Customer Due Diligence – understanding the basics
- Directors’ Duties (including sessions to two public listed companies)
Coverage & Insights
Melissa is a regular contributor to articles and webinars on Mauritius-related matters. Her articles can be found in the publications on the Appleby website. Other contributions include:
- The risk-based approach (webinar – 11 May 2021)
- Types of Security in Mauritius (webinar – 17 April 2023)
- Data Protection laws in Mauritius (webinar – 21 June 2023)
- MAURITIUS: Cryptocurrencies and virtual assets – how ready are we? (Step Journal, Issue 5 of 2022)
- Contribution to the Mauritius chapter to the Chambers and Partners’ “Fintech 2018” guide
- Africa Round Table – Speaker on “Offshore structures and strategy” (Insol conference – 10 November 2017)
- Marine Biotechnology Workshop – Speaker on “Way forward for establishing an enabling legal and regulatory framework in Mauritius” (Board of Investment conference – 13 November 2017)
- Ship Registry Workshop – Board of Investment – Speaker on “Positioning Mauritius in the Global Arena: effective measure to keep pace with international maritime obligations” (Economic Development Board conference – 20 February 2019)
Training courses delivered (laws of Mauritius)
- Induction Course on Anti-Money Laundering, Countering Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Financing
- Customer Due Diligence – understanding the basics
- Directors’ Duties (including sessions to two public listed companies)
Qualifications & Education
- University of Buckingham (England)
- BPP Law School, London (England)
- Council of Legal Education (Mauritius)
- International Compliance Association
- International Centre for Asset Recovery of the Basel Institute on Governance
Qualifications & Education
- University of Buckingham (England)
- BPP Law School, London (England)
- Council of Legal Education (Mauritius)
- International Compliance Association
- International Centre for Asset Recovery of the Basel Institute on Governance
Memberships & Associations
- Mauritius Bar Association
- STEP
- The Chartered Governance Institute (UK and Ireland)
- International Compliance Association
Memberships & Associations
- Mauritius Bar Association
- STEP
- The Chartered Governance Institute (UK and Ireland)
- International Compliance Association