Appleby
David is the Managing Partner of the Hong Kong and Shanghai offices and Local Corporate Group Head. He is also head of Asia Private Equity, M&A, and Corporate Restructuring.
Appleby
Acting on its own, as well as collaborating closely alongside other key offshore offices, including Bermuda, BVI and the Cayman Islands, Appleby provides ‘very responsive, practical and cost-effective advice’ directly to clients as well as in a referral capacity across a wide range of transactional, regulatory and litigation matters. In his dual role as managing partner and corporate head, David Bulley has guided the firm through a challenging market, and has been very effective in picking up a considerable volume of distressed M&A for fund clients, as well as a number of key roles advising on the offshore aspects of Chinese real estate restructurings. One of many in the office with excellent language skills, the ’proactive and commercial’ Judy Lee is ‘popular among Chinese clients’ on the offshore advice pursuant to both debt and equity capital markets matters. The ’very approachable and technically sound’ Fiona Chan also has exceptional language skills which she harnesses to good effect across a range of banking and finance work. Other key transactional lawyers include Vincent Chan, who is ‘approachable and knowledgeable’ on M&A and IPO matters, and Chris Cheng, who provides ’practical insights and advice’ on both international and HKSE listings. Eliot Simpson heads up the office’s litigation team and is noted, in particular, for shareholder and corporate disputes work as well as contentious insolvency matters. Richard Grasby heads up the office’s nascent private client offering and is ‘very strong on the technical points of both trusts and the regulatory issues’.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'They provide very responsive, practical and cost-effective advice.'
- 'Fiona Chan is highly recommended for banking work. Her Chinese language skills put her at an advantage against her competitors in offshore banking work where Chinese language is important. She is also very reliable and responsive.'
- 'Vincent Chan is approachable and knowledgeable.'
- 'Judy Lee is highly recommended for corporate work. Particular for her trilingual language ability.'
- 'Fiona Chan is very approachable and technically sound.'
- 'Chris Cheng offers practical insights and advice.'
- 'Vincent Chan is very responsive and commercial in his approach.'
- 'A lawyers' lawyer, Richard Grasby is very strong on the technical points of both trusts and the regulatory issues.
Key clients
- Black Spade Acquisition Co
- China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd.
- Silver Crest Acquisition Corporation
- Artisan Acquisition Corp
- China Everbright Water Limited
- Burke Porter Group, Ltd.
- Citibank N.A. (Hong Kong Branch)
- Vision Deal HK Acquisition Corp.
- Xinyi Solar Holdings Limited
- BC Technology Group Limited
Work highlights
- Advised Black Spade Acquisition Co on its proposed merger with VINFast by way of Cayman statutory merger.
- Advised China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. on all offshore aspects of the restructuring including RSA and schemes of arrangement and novel issues which arose due to newly revised UK sanctions regime which impacted companies with bondholders who are “connected to Russia”.
- Acted as Cayman counsel for Xinyi Solar Holdings Limited in relation to the proposed issue of the ordinary shares to be subscribed for and traded in RMB and the proposed listing of the RMB Ordinary Shares on the ChiNext Market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Lawyers
Leading individuals
Appleby
Fiona Chan is a partner in the corporate department of Appleby’s Hong Kong office, leading the Banking and Finance practice in the Hong Kong office as well as Appleby’s Technology & Innovation Group in Asia. Fiona has over 20 years of offshore and onshore experience in the Asian market and advises on the laws of Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands. Her broad offshore law practice spans banking and finance transactions including acquisition, leveraged and project financing, privatisation financing, shipping and aircraft financing, structured products, fund financing, bond issuance and restructuring of corporates and financial institutions. Fiona is routinely instructed by major international and Asian financial institutions, listed and private companies, securities providers and leading law firms.
Appleby
Judy Lee is a partner in the Corporate department of Appleby’s Hong Kong office. Judy practises a wide range of Bermuda, Cayman and BVI corporate law, specialising in corporate finance and investment funds. She is responsible for our corporate administration and fiduciary services business Appleby Global Services. Judy has over 25 years of offshore and onshore experience in listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Singapore Stock Exchange as well as mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments and other corporate finance transactions. Judy leads Hong Kong Capital Markets team which is recognised as one of the offshore market leaders for their specialist IPO and listing work advice in Hong Kong as well as overseas. Under her leadership, the team was able to complete consistently more than 50 listings on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2018, representing close to 40% of the market share. In addition, she has extensive experience in the structuring and setting up of Cayman investment funds in Asia. She also advises on Bermuda and Cayman court-sanctioned shareholders privatisation schemes of arrangement.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
David Bulley, Eliot Simpson, Richard Grasby