Southeast Asia - Singapore

1

Asset finance: foreign firms

Stephenson Harwood LLP

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Stephenson Harwood LLP’s structured and aviation finance, shipping and offshore finance team advises a range of major financial institutions, banks, lessors and lessees, on contentious and non-contentious matters. It has seen numerous restructurings and refinancings alongside lease work, sales and purchases, and portfolio management in the aviation space. Saugata Mukherjee is praised for his ‘unparalleled depth of aviation industry knowledge’, and Clement Leung is recommended for advising on the hedging aspects of aviation finance transactions. Piloted by practice co-head Gregg Johnston, the team handles a broad mix of multi-jurisdictional complex transactions including sustainability-linked loans, restructurings, and disputes. Gregory Xu, with over 15 years of experience in the maritime sector, excels in complex financing and restructuring issues. Huay Yee Kwan is noted for her expertise in PRC leasing, together with Pedram Norton and Jeffrey Tanner, who bring further depth and breadth to all aspects of ship and offshore finance.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Very knowledgeable in their fields of expertise - considered market leaders - provide first-class advice - most importantly as a team, they work together well and as a client that is very important.’

  • ‘Prepared to spend the extra time when needed to address particular issues that might be unique to our internal requirements without complaining that it was not part of the original fee structure - prepared to do that extra work as requested.’

  • ‘The team is highly knowledgeable on shipping matters and is considered one of the best in the industry. The work scope for projects is well thought out and transactions are closed smoothly.’

  • ‘Both Gregg Johnston and Matthew Seah are highly reputable in the Korean ship finance market. Their work is well appreciated as they often remember and anticipate lenders' and clients' needs in upcoming projects thereby saving us a lot of time and effort when reviewing loan documentation. With their help, transactions are closed smoothly with no surprises. Very often our first preference would be to work with them for new projects.’

  • ‘Highly skilled, cohesive, wide experience, excellent depth of knowledge, excellently resourced, friendly, well able to articulate points of law, efficient management of transactions involving many stakeholders, driven and hardworking.’

  • ‘Saugata Mukherjee - unparalleled depth of aviation industry knowledge, commercially astute, hugely experienced, excellent at finding solutions, very client-focused.’

  • ‘I have a long history of working with SH (particularly Saugata Mukherjee) in Singapore. Saugata is very astute, practical and sufficiently hands-on to ensure that his associates deliver sound advice and transactional support.’

Key clients

  • Air Asia
  • ABN AMRO Bank
  • ANZ Bank
  • Bank of Communications Financial Leasing
  • BNP Paribas
  • Cathay United Bank
  • Cebu Pacific
  • Deucalion
  • ICBC Aviation Leasing
  • ING Bank
  • Lion Air Group
  • MUFG Bank, Ltd
  • National Australia Bank Limited
  • Pacific International Lines
  • Standard Chartered Bank
  • StraitNZ Limited, Ferry Lines Limited
  • Transportation Partners

Work highlights

  • Advised a syndicate of lenders - comprising ABN AMRO Bank, ING Bank, TIAA FSB, and Clifford Capital - on a sustainability-linked loan.
  • Advised a syndicate of banks led by National Australia Bank Limited (NAB) and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) on a US$405 million debt financing of 10 crude oil tankers (the vessels) to subsidiaries of ICBC Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. (ICBCL).
  • Advised Singapore-based Transportation Partners on the restructuring of the Indonesian airline group, Lion Air.

Lawyers

Hall of Fame

The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.

Gregg Johnston

Gregg Johnston

Hall of fameStephenson Harwood

Gregg is the head of the Singapore based shipping and offshore finance team. Gregg acts on many of the highest profile transactions in the Asia Pacific region and is one of a few "go to" international ship and offshore finance lawyers with a focus on Korea. He acts for major ship financing banks and ship owners and has deep experience in all facets of shipping and offshore finance including syndicated lending, export-credit backed financings, FSRU financing, sale and leaseback transactions, loan portfolio sales, restructuring and workouts and enforcement work.

Rising stars

Leading individuals

Saugata Mukherjee

Stephenson Harwood

A structured and asset finance expert with a particular focus on aviation finance. Saugata also advises clients in respect of general banking matters, structured products and derivatives.

Next Generation Partners

Pedram Norton

Pedram Norton

Stephenson Harwood

Pedram is a partner specialising in cross-border ship finance and offshore maritime transactions. He has over ten years' experience advising banks, funds, export credit agencies, ship-owners and operators on a broad range of syndicated and bilateral financings, vessel sale and purchase, leasing transactions and restructurings throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Pedram has built a strong reputation with clients who value his approachability, commercial solutions, attention to detail and dedication to getting the deal done.

Jeffrey Tanner

Jeffrey Tanner

Stephenson Harwood

Jeffrey is a partner who is recognised as a leading transactional lawyer known for his expertise in banking, finance and marine and energy transactional matters.

Gregory Xu

Stephenson Harwood

Dr Gregory Xu is a partner who leads the general banking and project finance offering for Southeast Asia out of the Singapore office. He has over a decade of private practice experience and is a specialist in a range of complex multi-jurisdictional transactions. Gregory has extensive experience acting for financial institutions, funds, government agencies and companies in structuring, documenting and re-structuring against a combination of limited recourse and non-recourse syndicated and bilateral transactions in the fields of general/corporate finance, project finance, asset finance, trade finance, acquisition finance and leverage finance. He focuses on the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions and regularly acts for clients in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Gregory has specialist experience in the transportation sector, having advised on significant aviation, shipping and offshore oil and gas financings, particularly for FPSOs, FSRUs and LNG vessels. He acts for blue-chip clients on single and/or fleet-based asset (aircraft and ships) and equipment sale-and-purchase and sale-and-leaseback transactions and other corporate and commercial law arrangements. His expertise also extends to international security enforcement actions and restructurings, particularly those arising from insolvency and corporate proceedings. Gregory is presently admitted to practice law in the New York, England & Wales, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand and sits on the Admissions, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Young Lawyers Committees of the Law Society of Singapore. Prior to joining the firm, he was with a Magic Circle law firm and acted for clients across both their top-ranking banking and finance and asset finance practices.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Gregg Johnston, Saugata Mukherjee

Other key lawyers

Gregory Xu, Huay Yee Kwan, Jeffrey Tanner, Perdram Norton, Clement Leung, Matthew Seah

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