The Legal 500

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.