The Legal 500

Global Law Office’s head office is in Beijing, with branch offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Xin Zhang advised ADB in connection with China WindPower’s financing for future wind farm projects; represented IFC in relation to Epure International’s financing for waste treatment waters in China; and assisted BNP China and SCB China in relation to Trafigura’s RMB490m uncommitted revolving commodity-based financing. The ‘always reliable’ Lawrence Lin represented China Development Bank Corporation with regards to USD foreign exchange facilities for two PRC companies’ construction investments in Indonesia. Lin also acted for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) in a $150m facility to BVI company Sinopro Enterprise in relation to its acquisition of equity interests in PRC JVCs, and advised Deutsche Bank’s Hong Kong Branch in a $260m pre-IPO financing facility to Karvin in connection with its acquisition of the whole equity interests of a PRC company. Huawei Lin acted for Standard Chartered and Citic Capital in the financing of the acquisition of a real estate project by a PRC developer. Miller Wang advised CCB Financial Leasing Corporation in an RMB1bn financial leasing with Chongqing CECIC Sanfeng Energy.

Haiwen & Partners provides advice on syndicated loan transactions, purchases and sales of non-performing loans, issuance of letters of credit, the creation, perfection and enforcement of security interests, structuring and developing new financial products, and general regulatory and compliance matters. The practice advised the lenders, led by Bank of China, in connection with a loan to APP. Additional highlights included acting for JPMorgan Real Estate Fund in connection with a $60m loan to L’Sea Holdings. Citibank is a client.

Jun He Law Offices welcomed ‘impressive lawyer’ Gang Wang from Run Ming Law Office. Wang’s practice focuses on aircraft financing and leasing, and general banking and finance. The team acted as the PRC legal counsel to China Resources SZITIC Trust in the Guangsha Nanjing Trust Loan Project, involving an RMB1.2bn bridge loan. Jianeng Lu and Yingling Wei are widely respected practitioners; as is Zheng Shujun. Zhou Jun and Jian Wang are also key contacts.

King & Wood represented a foreign bank as the agent bank of a syndicate, marking the first transaction in which a foreign bank financed an SPV established in a free trade zone. The firm assisted Asian Development Bank in its financing to Zhongran Investment in connection with the CGH Phase II project, and advised Fangchenggang Nuclear Power and the relevant project company in the project financing of Guangxi Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Station, provided by a lending group of onshore financial institutions. The ‘competent and intelligent’ Wang Ling heads the team.

Zhong Lun Law Firm represented a PRC investor on the capital structure arrangements connected to a Sino-foreign joint venture, in relation to the development of a new theme park in Shanghai. Shirley Xu is recommended for banking and project finance matters; the ‘extremely reliable lawyer’ Hui Sun is noted for infrastructure and public utility matters, and has acted in water and garbage treatment concession projects; Rong Fan is a banking lawyer who has advised both sponsors and financiers on a wide range of financial products; Wilson Huo advised several foreign-funded banks in trade finance matters. Xuebing Zhang’s experience includes acting for Merrill Lynch in the financing of Beijing Yintai Centre, and advising Citibank in the loan financing of commercial properties.

Fangda Partners advises financial institutions and corporate borrowers on a wide range of banking and financing transactions, as well as regulatory matters. Typical experience includes acting on commercial lending issues, syndicated credit facilities, security arrangements, off-balance sheet and tax driven financing, export credit, trade financing, and swap and other hedging arrangements. On the project finance side, the practice is actively involved in infrastructure developments in both the coastal area and inland China, acting for sponsors, lending banks and governmental agencies. Offices are also run from Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Fielding ‘an extremely capable’ five-strong team, Run Ming Law Office’s highlights included assisting Bank of Communions Finance Leasing in closing an aircraft leasing transaction using the SPV structure. The group, led by ‘calm and collected’ executive partner Yi Liu, has also advised Chinese and foreign leasing companies with respect to aircraft leasing businesses operated by them in the Shanghai integrated free trade area, the Tianjin Dongjiang Port free trade zone, and the Beijing Tianzhu free trade zone. Associate Wang Yaxun is also a key figure.

Allbright Law Offices was among the first Chinese law firms to advise in the banking and finance arena and remains at the forefront of the market. A number of major domestic and multinationals have instructed the team, including Standard Chartered, Bank of East Asia and East West Bank. The team, including James Miao, has expertise assisting banks with acquisition strategies and restructuring projects, as well as advising financiers on the preparation of security for a range of facilities. Additionally, it has a wealth of experience in the disposal of non-performance loans for foreign-invested banks. The firm advised on a RMB4bn syndicated loan in connection with a large energy project, and acted for four major PRC banks on a RMB1.4bn syndicated loan. For East West Bank, it advised on the disposal of RMB309m-worth of non-performing loans in connection with its acquisition of United Commercial (China) Bank. Fang Yi left to join Jun He Law Offices

.Fangda Partners regularly advises banks and other financial institutions, corporate borrowers and credit enhancers on the full range of transactional and regulatory work. Adept at corporate rescue and insolvency works, advice includes debt and restructuring, liquidation and other insolvency-related work. Mandates have included advising Barclays Bank in connection with its investment in Beijing Energy Technology Investment, and acting for Goldman Sachs on its investment in Henan Songhe Liquor Industry. Swedish sovereign wealth fund Foundation Asset Management instructed the practice on PRC regulatory issues relating to its investment in Boston-Power. Headquartered in Shanghai, key partners include Jeffrey Shen, who focuses on commercial banking and foreign direct investment.

Jun He Law Offices has acted for a number of high-profile commercial banks, including advising RBS on investing into China. The team’s expertise includes syndicated loans, financing for infrastructure projects, merger and acquisition finance and debt restructuring, bankruptcy reorganisation and disposal of non-performing assets. Specialist matters, such as ship and aircraft financing, are another string to its bow. David Liu, Natasha Xie, Fang Yi and Hui (Nelson) Zhou are the key partner contacts.

Wang Ling heads King & Wood’s practice, which recently represented Asian Development Bank in its financing to Zhongran Investment for the CGH Phase II project. It also acted for Fangchenggang Nuclear Power on its project finance to Guangxi Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Station, provided by a lending group of onshore financial institutions. Aircraft finance is one of the firm’s niches, and it has been involved in the leasing of large aircraft and transactions involving other key airborne equipment by Chinese airlines. It has considerable experience in the import and export credit operations of Chinese banks, and assisted Export-Import Bank of China in drafting and preparing standard documentation for buyer’s credit facilities and preferential governmental loans. It also advised Export-Import Bank of China on other projects, including its provision of a buyer’s credit facility to a Norwegian shipping corporation for its ship purchases.

Llinks Law Offices’ Charles Qin is widely considered a leading expert on project finance deals and asset management, and the group has an outstanding reputation among domestic and international clients. In 2010, it assisted Shanghai Yidian Holding when it was designated by the Shanghai government to restructure the debts of SVA NEC; the debts amounted to RMB2bn in bank loans and RMB500m in claims by suppliers. Further highlights included representing SMIC on a refinancing project. Other regular transactions typically involve bilateral, club and syndicated lending, trade finance, derivatives, capital leasing, credit cards, transfer of loan assets and disposal of non-performing loans.

Boss & Young Attorneys at Law’s clients value its ‘excellent ability to work across Chinese and Western cultures’, particularly as much of its business is foreign-related. Within the finance arena, it is particularly renowned for investment funds, private equity and RMB formation. Led by Hubert Tse, who is ‘very knowledgeable in the asset management field’, recent highlights include advising a leading US private equity fund on the structuring and formation of a $300m fund in Tianjin. It also assisted the client in becoming one of the first global private equity firms approved to be set up in Shanghai under the Qualified Foreign Limited Partner’s (QFLP) programme. Among other highlights, the team advised a leading New York-based hedge fund on co-investment and an investment mandate from the China Investment Corporation (CIC) and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF).

Duan & Duan Law Firm’s strong reputation for finance work sees it regularly advising on securities issuance and listings as well as acquisitions and restructuring of listed companies, funding and project financing, financial leasing and financial derivatives. Key partners include Charles Duan and Richard Song.

Although best known in the capital markets sphere, Chen & Co. Law Firm has a broad remit, acting for a number of foreign banks and financial institutions. Expertise includes establishing operations and preparing documentation, advising on secured and unsecured credit facilities, as well as syndication, receivables financing and securitisation. Additionally, it handles day-to-day matters, including transaction procedures, preparing account documentation and advising banks on RMB loan documentation and other RMB facilities. John Jiang is recommended.

HHP Attorneys-At-Law works in collaboration with European firm Marccus Partners and has a wealth of experience advising on the establishment of foreign invested financial institutions. The nine-partner firm is particularly strong in tax-related financing advice. Clients have included Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UFJ China. Benjamin Bin Zhao is recommended.

Henry Zhuang & Partners is instructed mainly by foreign clients and is experienced in facilities, restructuring and derivatives. It’s advised a foreign invested bank in Shanghai on providing a term loan facility of RMB350m to a property investment company in Beijing. Other highlights included acting for the lender in restructuring a loan facility of RMB130m to a foreign-owned company based in Shanghai. Henry Zhuang Hongzhi is recommended.

Banking and finance is one of Richard Wang & Co’s core areas of expertise. Headquartered in Shanghai, the firm advises a number of foreign banks and financial institutions on matters such as syndication loan and general corporate loan transactions and finance leases. Clients regularly call upon the firm for PRC legal advice on government banking regulations and compliance matters. The firm’s client roster includes Standard Chartered, ABN AMRO, Bank of England and Citibank.

Yishi Law Firm regularly advises on foreign direct investment and re-investment, shares arrangement, securities, liquidation and bankruptcy, debt collection and foreign exchange. It frequently advises on foreign investment projects, and is well known for its tax consulting capabilities.

Particularly well known for its financial services practice in China, Allen & Overy LLP ‘protects client interests while ensuring that the transaction moves on smoothly’. The firm has continued to advise on significant deals across global loans, pre-IPO financings, asset finance, project finance, real estate finance, restructuring and China inbound and outbound investment. Recently, the team acted on numerous syndicated transactions, and it has developed a reputation in China for advising on the loan market’s more complex financing structures. Key matters included a $340m export credit financing, marking the first Sinosure-covered facility for a mining project in Russia and the first Russian mining facility without sovereign guarantee. The group also advised International Finance Corporation on the project financing for the development and construction of a 201MW wind farm. Matthias Voss and Yvonne Ho, and counsel Cindy Lo, in Beijing are recommended. Counsels Matthew Bisley and Kathleen Wong are based in Shanghai, and Beijing-based PRC regulatory head Jane Jiang was promoted to partner.

Clifford Chance LLP’s ‘excellent individual’ Stephen Harder and Bruce Schulberg are the key Beijing contacts. The practice advised CDB as lender on a $4.1bn financing to Turkmengas, the national gas company of Turkmenistan, the financing being secured by long-term gas supply receivables. Based in Hong Kong, Huw Jenkins heads the Asia banking and finance practice, and Paget Dare Bryan leads the Asia derivatives and structured products practice.

Linklaters’ track record has, in recent years, been supported by its growing strength in advising on a number of significant outbound regional and global strategic investments by Chinese financial institutions, corporations and Chinese state owned enterprises. The practice advised on the $3.5bn Project Baha Mar, a casino resort project financing, the first truly limited recourse project financing wholly provided by PRC lenders. The practice also advised Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as arranger and lender in connection with a $2.5bn term loan agreement for Sonangol Finance. Hong Kong-based Trevor Clark co-heads the Asian banking and projects practice; also in Hong Kong, David Irvine is a highly regarded LBO and structured lending lawyer. Beijing-based projects partner Thomas Ng is a Beijing-based projects partner, and in 2011, the firm relocated ‘brilliant and commercially prudent lawyer’ James Douglass to Beijing. Douglass is a senior project finance, energy and infrastructure expert. Beijing counsel Xiaohui Ji specialises in PRC-related and Sinosure-covered financing.

White & Case LLP represented the joint mandated lead arrangers and joint mandated bookrunners in an acquisition financing provided to MMI Precision Technologies to facilitate its acquisition of Intri-Plex Technologies and advised Deutsche Bank (Hong Kong) in a $260m pre-IPO financing, comprised of a term loan plus warrants, to Karvin. The practice also acted for China Development Bank Corporation (CDB) on two loans, together valued at over $20bn, to Venezuela’s Banco de Desarrollo Económico y Social de Venezuela, one of the largest that CDB has extended to any one country or lender. Xiaoming Li is the Beijing-based China practice head; also in Beijing, Baldwin Cheng, Steve Payne and Xiaogang (Sean) Wang are key practitioners. Hong Kong-based Asia banking, capital markets and restructuring head John Hartley is recommended.

Baker & McKenzie coordinates closely with its international network on cross-border work. Highlights included advising Disney on the capital structure arrangements connected to a Sino-foreign joint venture, relating to the development of a new theme park in Shanghai; and acting in a €900m financing to a chemical project company. In Shanghai, leading individual Harvey Lau is recommended; Andrew Lockhart, Barry Cheng, Stephen Eno and Allen Ng are respected practitioners.

Mayer Brown JSM has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and its reputation is particularly well founded in areas of asset finance, asset-backed lending, construction and real estate finance, derivatives, project finance and structured finance. Highlights included acting on behalf of ICBC Financial Leasing in its headline cross-border vessel leasing transaction in respect of a container vessel under construction by Hyundai Heavy Industries, which, on delivery, will be subject to a long-term time charter to COSCO Container Lines. Hang Seng Bank was advised as the mandated coordinating arranger on Hong Kong’s first ever Renminbi syndicated loan, a $50m-equivalent multi-currency term loan facility for China Automation Group. Alastair MacAulay, Allan Yu and Keith Cheung are well-known practitioners in Hong Kong, the PRC and the rest of Asia; also in Hong Kong Joe Tam and Irene Lau are best known for their PRC-related work.

Norton Rose LLP welcomed of counsel and projects specialist Fei Kwok to the Shanghai office from Shearman & Sterling LLP and Shanghai corporate finance lawyer Sun Hong was promoted to partner. The team advised long-standing clients Export-Import Bank of China and DnB NOR Bank as arrangers of loan facilities of circa $200m to Diana Shipping and Angelicoussis Shipping Group, two leading Greek operators, for the financing of five capesize and VLOC newbuildings. The firm advised The Bank of China on a secured term loan facility to finance a LNG vessel required for the transportation of liquefied natural gas from LNG loading facilities in Malaysia to the LNG terminal and trunk line project receiving facilities, to be located in Shanghai. It also advised China Development Bank on its bilateral financing of four large crude carriers under construction in China for affiliates of CV Shipping. Beijing partner Nigel Ward is recommended.

Shearman & Sterling LLP’s representation of Chinese financial institutions in their outbound forays into overseas projects has grown. The practice represented General Moly in the development and financing of a Moly mine project in Denver, USA that was financed by China Development Bank and China Exim; and advised Sinosure, China Development Bank and Bank of China on the financing of the Salalah IWPP in Oman, a natural gas and fuel-oil fired generating plant and seawater desalination plant, reflecting the growing interest that Chinese financial institutions have in the Middle East region. Shanghai office managing partner Andrew Ruff heads the firm’s banking and finance practice in China. Counsel Nick Wang specialises in project finance and acquisition financing.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer appointed a new banking partner in Hong Kong, Howard Lam, who joined from Linklaters. Lam specialises in banking, project finance lending, cross-border debt restructuring and other complex financing transactions. The team advised HSBC as lender on the granting of a $135m term loan facility to Zhen Hua Engineering, a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Group. It also advised Nomura as borrower on a $275m term and revolving facility with HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and ANZ as mandated lead managers. Also in Hong Kong, David Winfield and Andrew Heathcote are recommended.

Led by Beijing-based Warren Hua, Gide Loyrette Nouel A.A.R.P.I. continues to work for multinational clients, but has also seen growth on the China client side. Project finance remains a cornerstone of the practice, particularly in relation to industrial and infrastructure projects. China Development Bank is a client.

Relatively new to mainland China, Herbert Smith LLP’s banking and finance practice recently acted in relation to outbound energy project financings and on a receivables purchase financing facility, involving a cross-border lease-receivables financing arrangement. In Hong Kong, Alexander Aitken acted for a petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group in its restructuring of $5bn loans and which involved eight international banks.

Hogan Lovells International LLP was recently involved in a number of infrastructure and energy-related projects. It acted on the landmark $20bn financing of infrastructure and social projects in Venezuela, the largest Chinese financing in Latin America, in which it advised Petroleos de Venezuela and the Ministry of Finance of Venezuela on Chinese law and Venezuelan law. The practice also advised the Republic of Ecuador on obtaining financing from the Export-Import Bank of China for the payment obligations under a $1.98bn EPC contract relating to the development of the Coca-Codo Sinclair hydroelectric power plant. Beijing partners Jun Wei and Roy Zou are recommended. In Hong Kong, Owen Chan is a key contact.

Latham & Watkins LLP’s David Miles heads up the firm’s English law finance practice in Asia; Miles is ‘committed to providing in-depth market knowledge’. The practice advised China Properties Group in a $300m term loan financing, the transaction notable for its extensive cross-border nature and coordination, involving a PRC lender, a Hong Kong-listed Cayman incorporated borrower, the granting of security by Hong Kong, BVI and Cayman entities, and the refinancing of senior notes listed in New York. Clients appreciate an ‘outstanding service with quick response times, sensible business acumen and appropriate advice’. Asia finance guru Joseph Bevash is also a key contact.

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP advised long-standing client Standard Chartered Bank in connection with multiple banking and finance transactions, including the financing of a major commercial real estate asset in the central business district of Shanghai. The team also advised on one of the largest ever cross-border energy projects between China, Malaysia and Vietnam. Hong Kong partners Michelle Taylor and Christopher Stephens are recommended. Hong Kong of counsel Donna Healy is a leading structured and cross-border finance lawyer in Asia.

As the prominence of restructuring and workout activity continued to accelerate in the real estate finance sector, Paul Hastings LLP LLP played a major role in representing a variety of international banks in key loan workout and restructuring deals. The practice is also very active in project financing. Highlights included advising Standard Chartered Bank in connection with an onshore RMB secured syndicated term loan facility and an offshore US dollar mezzanine loan facility extended to an international real estate fund involving a large residential and retail real estate project. Beijing-based Joel Rothstein and David Blumenfeld in Shanghai are recommended.