The Legal 500

The firm

The globalisation of special situations investing by financial institutions led Bingham to Hong Kong. Within the Hong Kong office, Bingham’s lawyers – who are qualified in five jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, England and Wales, the US, Australia and Ireland – have extensive experience in financial restructuring and distressed debt, corporate/M&A, finance, investment funds and structured finance transactions. The firm’s lawyers in Hong Kong advise banks, public and private investment funds, insurance companies, and corporates in relation to distressed and special situations investments, high-end corporate work, complex asset-backed transactions and investment fund formation and operations. The firm has experience advising clients on transactions throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, among others.

Areas of practice

Corporate/M&A: Bingham principally advises institutional and corporate clients – including hedge funds, investment funds, banks, insurance companies and corporates – on special situations investments, stock exchange listings and high-end corporate work, including public/private M&A and takeovers, private equity, equity capital markets (including closed-end funds of hedge funds and other listings), debt capital markets, and strategic corporate advice (including activist shareholder and merger arbitrage). For example, the firm acted on the acquisition by way of public takeover by a Hong Kong-listed company of UK-based Birmingham City Football Club and on the privatisation by way of takeover offer and bond restructuring of China Central Properties (a Shui On Group member).

Financial restructuring: Bingham is widely recognised as being one of the world’s top-tier financial restructuring firms. The firm’s lawyers in Hong Kong have extensive experience in financial restructuring and debt and equity special situations. The team has also advised financial institutions, including hedge funds and capital markets participants, on transactions throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, China, India, Korea and the Philippines. The firm has played a leading role in representing creditors in numerous high-profile workouts and restructurings in Asia, including Asia Pulp & Paper, Centro and Griffin Coal. The financial restructuring practice in Hong Kong is an integral part of the firm’s global financial restructuring group, which consists of more than 100 lawyers operating across the US, Europe and Asia.

Asia funds: Bingham’s Hong Kong and Tokyo lawyers, together with colleagues in Europe and the US, provide advice to a wide range of Asian-based institutional and boutique investment management companies on all aspects of investment fund formation and operations. The firm has experience with all types of investment funds and pooled investment vehicles, including retail mutual funds, hedge funds and private equity funds. In Hong Kong, the firm advises on Hong Kong licensing issues and represents fund managers in applying for Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) licences. It also advises on the SFC authorisation of mutual funds for distribution to the retail public in Hong Kong. Bingham’s team in Asia also acts as transaction counsel in the establishment of European UCITS funds and European hedge funds.

Structured finance: Bingham is building upon its US and UK strengths in structured finance by focusing on advising clients on complex asset-based transactions in Asia. Lawyers at the firm’s Hong Kong office have advised underwriters, portfolio managers, issuers, institutional investors and trustees on structured finance, derivatives (including credit, equity and commodity derivatives), structured credit, structured equity, securitisations, structured funds and other complex transactions governed by Hong Kong, English and US law. The firm also has extensive experience of utilising structured finance techniques to assist in compliance with Hong Kong stock listing rules.

Contact Matthew Puhar (partner)

Languages
Cantonese
English
Mandarin

Other offices
Boston
Frankfurt
Hartford
London
Los Angeles
New York
Orange County
San Francisco
Santa Monica
Silicon Valley
Tokyo
Washington

Number of lawyers 1,100+

at this office 12