Advent Lawyers and Balance Legal Merger

Advent Lawyers and Balance Legal have plans to merge on July 1, 2012. The combined firms will be renamed AdventBalance and will have four offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Singapore and plan to open a fifth office in Brisbane later this year. Balance Legal founder and managing direct Ken Jagger will be based in Perth taking on the role of chief executive, and Advent Lawyers founder and CEO John Knox will be based in Singapore as the managing directory in Asia.

       FCL Issuance

FCL Treasury Pte Ltd issued a S$1 billion (US$788.4 million) multicurrency mediate term note programme under which FCL may issue notes. Allen & Gledhill acted as Singapore counsel for FCL, Frasers Centrepoint Ltd was their guarantor, DBS Bank Ltd acted as their arranger, dealer, issuing and paying agent, and agent bank, and DBS Trustee Ltd was the trustee. FCL issued S$75 million (US$59 million) 3.7% notes due 2019 under the programme. Allen & Gledhill partners Au Huey Ling, Sunit Chhabra, Margaret Chin, and Daselin Ang led this transaction.

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       New HK Head for O’Melveny

David Johnson, previously a capital markets specialist at O’Melveny & Myers in Century City, California has relocated to the firms Hong Kong office after being appointed to be the new head of O’Melveny’s Hong Kong branch. Johnson was formerly the head of O’Melveny’s transactions department and has experience working with corporations, financial institutions, and investment funds on capital market offerings, capital formations, strategic advice, and restructurings.

       New Partners and New HK Practice for Ropes & Gray

Ropes & Gray is expected to launch a Hong Kong law practice in Hong Kong in less than two week and has hired 2 new partners at the office. Capital markets and M&A partner Julian Chung joined the firm from Norton Rose, and China corporate specialist Gary Li joined from Paul Weiss. Ropes & Gray will acquire a formal license to practice Hong Kong law on May 28^th. Chung will help launch the Hong Kong practice and has experience with China IPO’s and secondary offerings. Li has experience in investment, M&A, and financing transactions.

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Time

Thursday, May 31, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.

Featured Speakers

Mark Barth (Partner, Akin Gump)

Daniel Byrne (Principal, Rothstein Kass)

Ingrid Cheng (Counsel, Akin Gump)

Deirdre Joyce (Senior International Tax Manager, Rothstein Kass)

Location

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, 43rd Floor

One Bryant Park (42nd Street and 6th Avenue), New York, NY 10036

       Felda Global IPO

Malaysian palm oil firm Felda Global Ventures Holding is executing what is expected to be the world’s second largest IPO this year next to Facebook. Albar & Partners is acting as their legal adviser on Malaysian law and for the IPO, and Cleary Gottleib is advising the company on U.S. and English law. Azmi & Associates are also advising Felda Global. Adnan Sundra & Low and Linklaters are advising the joint book runners CIMB, Maybank, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan.

       GE – China XD Partnership

General Electric Company (GE) and China XD Electric Co (China XD) have entered into a joint venture where GE will invest $535 million to acquire a 15% equity stake in China XD. A Skadden team led by China partner Gregory Miao, NY partner Daniel Dusek, and Shanghai counsel Zhan Zhao is representing China XD. Haiwen & Partners are acting as PRC counsel to China XD led by partners Jiping Zhang and Liping Li. Weil Gotshal & Manges is advising GE with a team led by China practice head Steven Xiang, Shanghai based partner Suat Eng Seah, Beijing counsel Wenfeng Li, and NY partners Howard Catzinoff and Charan Sandhu. 

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       Dewey & LeBoeuf Leaders Decide to Leave Firm

Two of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s four leaders, Richard Shutran and Jeffery Kessler have decided to leave the firm due to the firm’s preparation for mass layoffs of employees and junior lawyers. Shutran, the co-chair of Dewey’s corporate department, is leaving to join O’Melveny & Myers, and Kessler, the chair of Dewey’s litigation department is leaving to join Winston & Strawn.

       New Partners at Squire Sanders in China

Squire Sanders has added 4 new partners to its Greater China team at their Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong offices. Corporate specialists Jenny Liu and Xudong Ni have joined their Beijing and Shanghai offices and corporate partner Sin Kiu Ng and intellectual property expert Kam Law have joined their Hong Kong office. Lui focuses primarily on private equity and venture capital investment matters in China. Ni has experience with cross border M&As, FDI, Chinese regulatory issues, and dispute resolution. Ng has experience in IPOs, M&A, and venture capital work. Law is a U.S. patent attorney and is qualified in the U.S. and Hong Kong.

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       New Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Dubai

Peter Gray, previously at Dewey & LeBoeuf joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as a partner at their Dubai office. His focuses are English and international litigation, arbitration, and disputes specializing in disputes in the MENA region and Asia. He also has experience with arbitrations.

       K&L Gates Doha New Partner

Amjad Hussain joined K&L Gates as a partner in their corporate and finance practices in Doha. He previously managed operations at Eversheds in Doha. He has experience with corporate and financing transactions, with a focus on Shariah compliant matters including corporate, real estate, asset, and project finance. 

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       Automakers Agreement to Develop Electric Vehicles 

CODA Holdings and China’s Great Wall Motor Company have agreed to co-develop, building, and sell electric vehicles for the North American, Chinese, and European auto markets. Weil advised CODA and King & Wood Mallesons advised Great Wall Motor Company. Weil partner Anthony Wang led the team for this partnership. This partnership will allow both automakers to develop and sell electric vehicles efficiently and at low cost.

       GT Capital Holdings $500 million IPO

The $500 million IPO offered by GT Capital Holdings was the first IPO this year and the second biggest ever in the Philippines. Sidley Austin advised GT Capital on US Law and Feria Law advised as counsel on Philippine law. Allen & Overy acted as international counsel. UBS was the sole international underwriter for this IPO, and Picazo Byco Tan & Fider acted as their Philippine counsel. Sidley Austin’s team was led by partner Alex Lloyd and included Benjamin Carale and Dorothy Dizon.

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Senior Corporate Association – Shanghai

Position: Top international law firm seeks senior associate with more than 8 years legal experience to work on corporate transitional matters at their Shanghai office. Candidate should have experience with transitions and projects, and must be qualified in the PRC and preferably in the US or UK as well.

Company: This Amlaw 100 international law firm has more than 650 lawyers and 12 offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Their clients range from multinational corporations to individual entrepreneurs, federal and state agencies to national governments, and non-profit organizations to businesses representing virtually every sector and industry.

Requirements: Candidate should have experience with transitions and projects and must be qualified in the PRC.

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On March 18, 2012 the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) administered the Interim Measures for the Supervision and Administration of the Outbound Investments by Central State-owned Enterprises that will become effective on May 1, 2012. This was a remarkable attempt made by the SASAC to regulate outbound investments made by Centrally-administered State-owned enterprises with a focus on the filing of the outbound investment plans and projects of these enterprises.

These measures taken by the SASAC along with their previous issuings of the Overseas State owned Assets Measure and the Overseas State-owned Property Rights Measures have strengthened the SASAC’s administrative and supervisory powers over outbound investments by Central Enterprises. This suggests that there is a need for closer supervision of these outbound investments and brings to light the risks associated with outbound investments. The total value of the outbound investments by Chinese companies has exceeded US$1 trillion with most investments made by state-owned enterprises.

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       DLA Asia Pacific Gains New Managing Director

Partner and group head of finance and projects, Bob Charlton, will be the new managing director of DLA Piper Asia Pacific as of May 1, 2012. He is replacing Alastair Da Costa who is leaving to pursue a Masters Degree at the London School of Economics. Charlton is highly experienced in finance and projects, infrastructure, and transactions and banking. He will be based in Hong Kong and will split his time between Australia and Asia, visiting the 11 Asian Pacific offices on a regular basis.

       Five new Counsel for Freshfields

In Hong Kong Freshfields has hired Ethan Jin from Clifford Chance HK as counsel, and promoted competition and trade specialist Margaret Wang and corporate specialist David Cotton to counsel. In Ho Chi Minh City Tien Bui and Lang Nguyen were also promoted to counsel at Freshfields. Jin focuses on Hong Kong IPO’s and securities offerings, M&A’s, and Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed companies’ compliance matters. Wang advises on antitrust aspects of cross border M&A’s and disputes. Cotton has represented issuers and underwriters in capital markets transactions and M&A’s. Bui has experience in banking matters, infrastructure project financing, restructuring and other commercial transactions. Nguyen advises on M&A’s and IPO’s, regulatory and structuring matters, and has assisted foreign invested enterprises with incorporating in Vietnam.

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