Luke Gannon > DLA Piper > Hong Kong, Hong Kong > Lawyer Profile

DLA Piper’s Asia investment fund practice is routinely mandated by sovereign wealth funds from Hong Kong, China, the Middle East, Singapore, Korea and Malaysia. The team, which is also sought out by private equity funds, family offices and equity financial investors, assists with establishing hedge, private equity and real estate funds in Hong Kong, Singapore and the PRC. Hong Kong-based Luke Gannon acts for financial institutions, investment banks, fund managers, sponsors and investors on a range of investment products.

Spearheaded by Hong Kong-based Luke Gannon, DLA Piper has a proven track record in managing public takeovers, multi-jurisdictional M&A, and complex joint ventures for a range of domestic and international companies. The firm stands out for its expertise in the capital markets, real estate, and IP spheres, with Shanghai’s Qiang Li being an expert in corporate finance, direct investment projects, and restructurings. Also based in Shanghai, Roy Chan frequently supports major Chinese enterprises in their expansion through joint ventures and corporate matters. Operating of Beijing, James Chang is highly knowledgeable on securities law and leveraged finance issues.

Led by the vastly experienced Luke Gannon, DLA Piper has established a robust reputation across APAC for providing advice to fund managers on a diverse range of strategies and asset classes including real estate, private equity, and hedge funds. Although the market has been challenging in many of those asset classes with less US investor money flowing in to these funds (in part due to geo-political tensions), the firm has been very successful targeting sponsors that are raising capital from more regional sources. The team also has a strong investor offering which has grown in stature in recent years, picking up its own work as well as effectively leveraging the ties with many large institutional investors developed by the firm’s market-leading investor practice in Austin, Texas.

As a component of the integrated Greater China offering, which also boasts a substantial presence on the Mainland, the Hong Kong team at DLA Piper is adept at counselling both issuers and underwriters on domestic and international ECM transactions, leveraging the expertise of attorneys proficient in domestic, English, and US securities law. Christina Loh has experience at advising corporates and banks on HKEX IPOs for issuers across a range of industry sectors, and also regularly assists issuers on follow-up listing compliance matters. New York-qualified partner George Wu is adept at advising on Rule 144A, Regulation S and SEC-registered equity offerings. Luke Gannon heads up the overarching corporate team which houses the ECM offering. Beijing-based Yang Ge who has extensive experience with U.S. IPOs and Hong Kong IPOs, is another name to note.