Zul Rafique & Partners

Corporate/Mergers & Acquisitions

David Lee Lai Huat is a Partner in the Corporate practice group, with a primary and keen focus on the areas of capital markets and merger & acquisition transactions, inbound as well as outbound. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) degree from the University of London. He obtained his Certificate of Legal Practice and was admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in 1995. He also holds a postgraduate qualification, Master of Laws (LLM), from the University of Malaya. David is also a registered Notary Public.

David has advised on initial public offerings and successful listings on the Main Market, ACE Market and LEAP Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad. He has also advised on foreign listings, notably, on Singapore Exchange and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. He has advised a handful of successful listings on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. With regards to mergers and acquisitions, he advises both sellers and buyers alike, which invariably involve advice on the overall structure of the transactions and attendance to legal due diligence and transaction documentation. Given his knowledge and experience in those areas, David has been instructed by independent directors to provide independent legal advice to them in merger and acquisition transactions, and by minority shareholders and their representatives in the initial public offerings implemented by companies in which shares are held by them. David also advises on and attends to pre-initial public offering investments as well as issuance of redeemable preference shares by companies to the public which necessitates prior registration of Information Memorandum with the Securities Commission Malaysia.

Besides the areas of practice described above, David also advises on joint ventures, foreign direct investments and compliance by public listed companies on their corporate exercises, such as rights issues and bonus issues, and reorganisation or restructuring of a group of companies.

David has presented several papers at conferences (local and overseas) and webinars. He is a member of the Bar Council Corporate and Commercial Law Committee, the International Professional Services Committee, the International Pacific Bar Association and the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia. He also represents the firm in the lawyers’ focus group with Malaysian regulators and the drafting committee organised for the launch of the Equity Capital Markets Due Diligence Guide.

After being called to the Malaysian Bar in 1995, David advised on non-contentious (where he advised on real estate transactions, corporate banking loan and security documentation and mergers and acquisition matters) and contentious (where he appeared in subordinate courts and High Court) matters. Since finding his niche in corporate law, he focuses primarily on corporate and securities law matters. During this time, he advised various transactions and corporate exercises, ranging from mergers and acquisition to initial public offerings, which include initial public offering of Malaysian companies on foreign stock exchanges, such as Singapore Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange and initial public offerrings of units of collective investment schemes, such as real estate investment trusts. Initially, he was part of the team advising on corporate exercises and transactions, including participation in due diligence reviews). Subsequently, he led teams of lawyers for similar matters.

David was made a partner at his previous firm in 2008. He joined Zul Rafique & partners as a Corporate Partner in January 2015. Since then, he has advised on numerous transactions and corporate exercises, notably, the restructuring of a government linked company, the initial public offering of shares on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia and the Main Market of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He also advised a foreign owned private equity fund on an inbound merger and acquisition.

English and Bahasa Malaysia

Malaysian Bar

Member of the Bar Council’s Corporate and Commercial Law Committee

Member of Inter Pacific Bar Association

David holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) degree with honours from the University of London. He obtained his Certificate of Legal Practice and was admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in 1995. He then proceeded to complete his Master of Laws (LLM) at University of Malaya in 2004.

 

David is an avid golfer and reads during his travels overseas.