Hong Kong

	49/F One Exchange Square 8 Connaught Place Central HONG KONG Tel: +85 2 2840 1202 Fax: +85 2 2840 0686 Email: Matthew Barnard (view CV) Don Hess (view CV) Simon McConnell (view CV) Tim Manefield (view CV) Jim Dunstan (view CV) Career enquiries: view Current careers vacancies		Street Map Local time View our experts Hong Kong LawLinks

The Hong Kong office was established in 1988 and practises Hong Kong, Australian and English law, working closely with the Shanghai and Beijing offices on China-related projects.

Our Greater China team offers an impressive knowledge of both Chinese and international legal, business and cultural matters. We have considerable experience in handling all aspects of Hong Kong and PRC regulatory matters for our clients: M&A, including both share and asset arrangements; tax effective structuring; foreign direct investment; syndicated and bilateral lending and debt capital markets work; funds management; real estate acquisition, development and investment trusts; and commercial litigation disputes, regulatory matters and investigations, particularly in the financial services industry.

Allens is ranked as a leading firm in Hong Kong in banking and finance, capital markets, corporate (including M&A), dispute resolution, financial services, regulatory, telecommunications, media & technology, insurance, and intellectual property by Asia Pacific Legal 500 2007-08 and is recommended for corporate (including M&A), real estate, projects, infrastructure & energy, and funds management in China/Hong Kong by Chambers Asia 2008.

Recent projects include:

• acted for ING Real Estate Asia Value Fund on all aspects of the establishment of this fund which was established to invest in a range of Asian jurisdictions;
• acted for Singapore Stock Exchange listed infrastructure fund MIIF in its acquisition of a stake in Taiwan Broadband Communications (TBC);
• represented Optiver, a global securities and derivatives market maker, on the establishment of its business in Hong Kong and its application for relevant licences with the SFC;
• represented ANZ, Natixis and Rabobank International who provided a HK$3.2 billion senior secured acquisition financing facility to enable a subsidiary of Pioneer Iron & Steel Group Limited to launch a hostile takeover bid for Hong Kong main board listed China Oriental Group;
• acted for a European bank in the project financing of an oil and gas appraisal facility relating to Vietnam oil and gas fields;
• advising Schneider Electric on the formation of a major equity joint venture in China with Delixi Group Co Ltd, one of China's leaders in electrical distribution, to manufacture, market and distribute electrical products in the PRC and globally;
• representing a client in successful commercial litigation proceedings at the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong in relation to a proposed PRC joint venture, avoiding a liability of HK$140 million;
• advising Bank of China on Directors' & Officers' insurance coverage in connection with the landmark US$11 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong;
• advising Amcor on its US$105 million acquisition of a controlling interest in Hong Kong-listed company Vision Grande (Holdings) Limited, a packaging products company which has significant assets and operations in the PRC;
• advising on a range of trade finance issues in Hong Kong and the PRC, for borrowers and banks, including ANZ, Westpac, Standard Chartered, Société Générale, Fortis, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG and DBS;
• advising a large international pharmaceutical company regarding laws in Hong Kong which protect intellectual property rights and may be utilised to address counterfeiting activities;
• advising a bank with significant operations in Asia in the context of an investigation by the SFC in Hong Kong.

In addition, our lawyers offer advice to clients wishing to invest in Australia. A very successful seminar on this topic was held in July 2008 in Beijing.

Language capabilities:

English, Mandarin, Cantonese