About

Since featuring in last year’s GC Powerlist: Hong Kong Teams, the legal team at ICBC International (ICBCI) has contributed to a list of significant transactions whilst seamlessly overseeing regulatory demands for the wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The team, still under the stewardship of general counsel and managing director Han Wai Khor, has worked on key matters such as ICBCI’s acting as co-lead manager in Qingdao Haier’s listing on the D-Share Market of the China Europe International Exchange in October 2018, being the first issuer listed on such market. They also helped execute ICBCI’s offer of trading related services in respect of Iron Ore Futures at Dalian Commodity Exchange in May 2018 and the company’s involvement in various significant IPOs in Hong Kong, including China Tower Corporation in July 2018, Shandong Gold Mining Co. and China Renaissance Holdings in September 2018, Wanka Online in December 2018 and Shenwan Hongyuan Group in April 2019. The team is also commended for its handling of ICBCI’s establishment of offshore real estate investment funds, firstly, with Sino Ocean Group for the acquisition of a top tier Beijing CBD office building and another with CNLP for the purpose of acquiring certain logistics assets located in three locations in mainland China previously held by CNLP for approximately ¥2bn. The ICBCI legal team has in the last year added Rae Guo, a Hong Kong qualified lawyer from a magic circle firm, to provide additional support to the investment management teams and a corporate secretarial service officer. On how talent is retained, Khor believes that the team’s success in this lies in having a ‘united team mind-set coupled with individual empowerment and accountability’, also highlighting how their ‘open communication’ and ‘strong bonds have facilitated effective communication and sharing of legal expertise within the team’. The team’s proactive approach concerning regulatory developments whilst meeting their already demanding schedule is also noteworthy. They constantly work to identify knowledge gaps or areas of interest arising from relevant regulatory developments and organise training workshops for front office colleagues in response, also working with those colleagues to pre-emptively identify potential areas that may be of concern to the regulators. ICBCI’s legal team is a department worthy of its recognition in this publication and, under increasing costs pressures, is set to continue providing its industry-award-winning service to internal clients whilst overseeing the development of the regulatory landscape.