About

As a specialist in real estate, transport, infrastructure and banking services, Yue Xiu Enterprises (Holdings) legal work involves multiple industries and a broad range of legal work, ranging from banking finance, debt capital markets, equity capital markets, M&As and regulatory compliance among others. Fortunately the company is able to rely on its in-house legal team of four qualified lawyers, four chartered company secretaries and four other members to oversee this extensive remit. Amongst the team, Tat Fung Yu was promoted to group general counsel of Hong Kong and became a member of the Yuexiu Group management team in 2017 whilst Edmund Chan was appointed as the new head of legal for Hong Kong in April 2018, and is responsible for the entire Hong Kong legal team. Describing some of the challenges the company faces, Chan explains how this affects the legal team: ‘In Hong Kong we are facing three regulators namely the Securities and Futures Commission, The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. As the Group’s businesses in different segments and different listed companies continue to grow, the group requires a Hong Kong professional team stronger than ever to support its growth strategy and inter-company business synergies, by way of, among other things, helping to build a more comprehensive internal control framework’. In early 2019, the team assisted on Yuexiu Property’s introduction of Guangzhou Metro Group as a strategic shareholder alongside the ¥14bn acquisition of a metro station property project for joint development with Guangzhou Metro. ‘This transaction was well received by the market as a remarkable move in advancing the company’s business strategy of “Railway and Property”. Apart from its business significance, the transaction was regulated by both The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and Securities and Futures Commission, under its new whitewash regime effective in mid-2018 requiring a super-majority independent shareholder approval’, says Chan. Looking to the future, the team expects to digitalise the debt covenant and loan document portfolio across the group and as the group continues to grow and is looking to expand, the team sees this as an opportunity to optimise the team structure and improve the overall competence to match today’s changing needs.