Stephenson Harwood LLP‘s primary strengths lie in the asset finance sphere and it has built further prominence in corporate loans in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and India. The Singapore office’s heritage in asset finance has afforded the wider banking and finance team with a mighty regional and international bank client base. This has led to a range of engagements including sustainability and ESG-linked loans. Key markets include Singapore, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Malaysia. Of particular note, the Singapore team advised the State Bank of India on a $1bn credit facility to the Government of Sri Lanka for the purposes of importing food, medicine, and other essential items. Gregory Xu has a fine reputation for ship finance and the broader banking and finance area.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Partner engagement is the defining factor for the team. It is very appreciated that we can reach out to partners and they have the depth of knowledge in both the market and the specific deal to be able to provide sound commercial advice.’

  • ‘Pedram Norton is the partner that we worked with this year. He has shown the ability to provide commercial advice and possesses the depth of knowledge required to do so, given his years in the market. We appreciate the fact that he is engaged in the deal specifics.’

  • ‘Gregory Xu is a very responsive, responsible, and commercially practical lawyer.’

  • ‘Stephenson Harwood provides training to its clients and guides their clients through the facility agreement documentation process.’

Key clients

  • ABN AMRO Bank
  • AION Capital
  • Axis Bank
  • Bank of America
  • BNP Paribas
  • Credit Agricole
  • Credit Suisse
  • DMI Finance India
  • Golden Equator Private Capital
  • HDFC Bank
  • ICICI Bank
  • ING Bank
  • MUFG Bank
  • OCP Asia
  • Q&M Dental
  • Shanghai Pudong Development Bank
  • Standard Chartered Bank
  • TransAsia Private Capital Limited
  • ANZ Bank
  • Asian Development Bank
  • Axis Trustee Services Limited
  • Bank of Baroda
  • Bank of Communications
  • Bank of Singapore
  • BioNTech
  • Campana Group
  • Chailease International Financial Services
  • China Development Bank
  • China Minsheng Banking Corporation
  • CLSA Capital Partners
  • DBS Bank
  • GMR Coal Resources
  • HSBC Bank
  • Industrial Bank of Korea
  • Kookmin Bank
  • KPMG
  • Lembaga Pembiayaan Ekspor Indonesia (Indonesia Eximbank)
  • Mashreq Bank
  • National Australia Bank Limited
  • Nonghyup Bank
  • Nordea Bank
  • Suhyup Bank
  • State Bank of India
  • The Export-Import Bank of China
  • The Korea Development Bank
  • TIAA Bank

Work highlights

  • Advised the State Bank of India (SBI) on a $1bn credit facility to the Government of Sri Lanka for the purposes of importing food, medicine, and other essential items.
  • Advised a syndicate of lenders - comprising ABN AMRO Bank, ING Bank, TIAA FSB, and Clifford Capital - on a sustainability-linked loan.
  • Advised Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank and MUFG Bank on its $500m social loan to the State Bank of India for the financing of eligible social projects, in accordance with State Bank of India's ESG financing framework and in alignment with the social loan principles.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Gregory Xu

Other key lawyers

Pedram Norton, Jeffrey Tanner