Partner Dixon Hearder joined Baker & McKenzie Sydney’s tax practice. He was formerly a partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and led the tax practice in their Sydney office. Dixon’s tax experience includes an expertise in stamp duty and transfer pricing in regards to advising Australian and international clients on Australian tax law. He earned his Bachelors of Commerce and Law from the University of South Wales. He also holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Sidney and is a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia.

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Clifford Chance litigation partner Denis Brock is leaving the firm after nearly 25 years to join Australian leader Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Hong Kong. The new role will mark Brock’s third spell in Hong Kong after he spent five years in the region with CC from 1987 and 1992, before taking on the leadership of the magic circle firm’s local practice from 1997 to 2006.

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King & Wood is helping China Everbright Bank prepare for its US$3bn IPO, after advising Agricultural Bank of China on its huge US$19.2bn IPO. Everbright recently received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to raise approximately US$3bn on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The bank also plans to launch an IPO in Hong Kong (depending on market conditions) after its A-share listing.

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Baker & McKenzie has hired Paul Elliott as the firm’s Asia Pacific Head of Project Finance. Elliot has extensive expertise advising clients on project, structured and cross-border financings, along with debt restructuring, in the power, oil, gas & petrochemicals, telecoms, transportation and water industries. Having practiced in England, Hong Kong, Thailand and New Zealand over a thirty year career, Elliot most recently lead the firm’s Finance and Projects practice group in Singapore. The assignment Elliot is set to begin on September 1, 2010 was created in response to increasing demands for integrated advice from clients involved in significant regional infrastructure projects.

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Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson has represented China Liansu Group Holdings Limited, one of the largest manufacturers of plastic pipes and pipe fittings in China, in respect of its global offering of ordinary shares and the related listing of such shares on the HKSE. The global offering consisted of a Hong Kong public offering and a concurrent 144A/Reg S placement. JP Morgan and UBS acted as joint global coordinators for the transaction, which generated aggregate gross proceeds of approximately US$250 million (HK$1.95b). Hong Kong corporate partners Victoria Lloyd and Joshua Wechsler led the firm’s advisory team.

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Clifford Chance partner Nigel Wellings is set to relocate to Dubai at the end of June, as the magic circle firm moves to boost its corporate offering in the region. Wellings has spent his entire legal career with CC, having joined as a trainee in 1995, qualified as a solicitor in 1997 and joined the partner rank in 2006. His practice focuses on domestic and cross-border M&A, public takeover offers, listing work and general corporate advisory with, with a specialization towards the infrastructure and mining sectors. Wellings will be the thirds CC corporate partner in Dubai and stay there for a three-year secondment during which he will also be responsible for supporting younger lawyers coming into partnership in the office.

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Clifford Chance has advised Barclays Capital, CIMB and HSBC as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners in respect of the Government of Malaysia’s US$1.25 billion 3.928 percent sukuk-al-ijara certificates, which were issued on 4 June 2010 and are due in 2015. The deal represents the lowest absolute yield achieved by an Asian sovereign over the past five years and is the largest global sovereign Islamic issuance to date. The sukuk certificates were issued outside of the US and to qualified institutional buyers within the US, and are to be listed on the HKSE, the Bursa Malaysia under an exempt regime, and the Labuan International Financial Exchange. The firm’s advisory team was led by partners Debashis Dey and Qudeer Latif in Dubai, while a separate team from the firm’s Hong Kong office, comprised of Anthony Oakes and Boon Teck Yeo, advised The Bank of New York Mellon in its capacity as delegate. Allen & Overy in Singapore acted for the Government of Malaysia as to English and US law, while the Malaysian office of Hisham, Sobri & Kadir advised 1Malaysia Sukuk Global Berhad as the issuer of the sukuk certificates and trustee on behalf of the sukuk certificate-holders. The Malaysian office of Zaid Ibrahim & Co advised the joint lead managers as to Malaysian law.

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Clifford Chance has promoted five Asia-based lawyers to partner as part of its annual promotions.  Cameron Hassall (arbitration & commercial litigation, Hong Kong), Leng-Fong Lai (capital markets and structured finance, Tokyo), Ho Han Ming (funds & corporate, Singapore), James Abbott (dispute resolution & litigation, Dubai) and Tim Wang (corporate, Beijing) were all promoted.  The firm has promoted 22 partners globally in total, with most of them being in the corporate, finance and litigation & dispute resolution practices.

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Ropes & Gray has reportedly appointed Arthur Mok, the former managing partner of Hogan & Hartson’s Shanghai office, to partner in the firm’s life sciences, M&A and private equity practices in China.  He will initially be based in Washington, but he will launch Ropes & Gray’s Shanghai office once the office is approved by the Chinese government.

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Winston & Strawn has advised AIF Capital, an Asia-based independent private equity firm, with its negotiation with UK-listed media group Aegis Group plc regarding Aegis’ strategic investment of around US$50 million in Charm Communications Inc. AIF Capital is an existing preferred shareholder in Charm Communications Inc, which has substantive advertising and media operations in China. The firm’s team was led by Hong Kong based partner Simon Luk.

Baker & McKenzie is acting as Hong Kong counsel for ARA Asset Management (Fortune) Limited, as manager of Fortune Real Estate Investment Trust, and HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) Limited , as manager and trustee, in connection with the listing of Fortune REIT’s units on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange by way of introduction. This is the first REIT to be dual-listed on both the Hong Kong and Singapore Stock Exchanges. The joint listing agents are DBS Asia Capital Limited and JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited. The firm’s advisory team was led by corporate partner Milton Cheng.

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Deal flow is still active throughout Asia, particularly China, the most resilient emerging market in the current global economic downturn.  Included below are some of the most newsworthy capital markets, M&A, energy, private equity and finance deals of 2009 and 2010, with Asia’s IPO volume and search for oil and other raw materials leading the region’s recovery.

2010

So far in 2010, Asia has seen considerable growth in funds, including BoCom’s (Bank of Communications) announcement this February of its aim to raise $250 to $500 million in the three months for a China private equity fund.  This would be the largest fund raising effort by a mainland company since 2007.

IPOs have also continued its positive growth into 2010; here are a few notable and recent IPO deals in 2010:

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