Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP

Head, Corporate Shipping & Finance

Chua Choon King currently heads the firm’s Corporate Shipping & Finance practice group.

He has spent his entire legal career spanning more than two decades in the shipping arena. He started his career handling a wide range of wet and dry shipping litigation work for several years, before being tasked to start up a corporate shipping department. Over the course of a dozen years, he has built a reputable team which “punches above its weight” (The Legal 500 Asia Pacific) and is recognised as “an outstanding market leader for ship finance” (Asialaw Profiles).

Over the last decade, Choon King’s work has consistently been recognised in numerous leading legal publications, including The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Chambers Global/Asia-Pacific, Asialaw Profiles, Best Lawyers and IFLR1000. He is described by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific as “incisive and tirelessly determined”. Chambers Asia-Pacific observed that he “has well-established experience in the area of shipping finance in Singapore, regularly acting for notable banks. He offers clients knowledge of ship sale and purchase agreements as well as leasing work” and lauded him as an “outstanding lawyer who is vastly experienced and who combines a sharp legal mind with a keen appreciation of the commercial considerations”. Chambers Asia-Pacific also quoted clients as saying that Choon King “delivers excellent work under extreme time pressure” and other clients have commented that his “20 plus years of experience and his shipping litigation background give him a clear advantage when handling deals, allowing him to focus on critical issues, to anticipate potential difficulties and offer effective solutions”.

Choon King is regularly involved in ship sale and purchase, sale & lease-back arrangements and loan transactions (bilateral as well as syndicated).  He has acted for a plethora of ship financing banks over the years, including the Singapore banks DBS Bank, UOB and OCBC, and foreign banks such as Nordea Bank, HSBC, DVB Bank, BNP, Fortis Bank, ING Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, HSH Nordbank, Citibank Japan, Calyon, Société Générale, etc.

He also focuses on other corporate/transactional aspects of shipping and handles the whole range of corporate work required by shipping companies, from solvent restructuring, general corporate transactions (JVs, M&As, etc), fund raising, port / terminal development projects and berth/terminal leasing contracts. With the recent spate of insolvencies in the shipping/ oil & gas sectors, he has been actively involved in insolvency / restructuring work in relation to shipping companies (such as Swiber, Pacific Richfield Marine and Searights Maritime Services). Given his unique blend of experience in both contentious and non-contentious shipping matters, he is well positioned to draft and advise on other shipping documentation such as shipbuilding and ship repair contracts, charterparties and bills of lading. Choon King has also acted in a significant number of structured trade, inventory and warehouse financing transactions involving various security instruments and collateral management agreements.

LLB (Hons), National University of Singapore Advocate & Solicitor, Singapore