Allens Arthur Robinson

Office contacts

• Seamus CorneliusPartner
  Seamus.Cornelius@aar.com.au

  View CV

• Stuart MenglerPartner
  Stuart.Mengler@aar.com.au

  View CV

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• Meet our Senior Associates

Allens Arthur Robinson has one of the most experienced teams of any international law firm in China. Allens became officially licensed by the Ministry of Justice in 1996 and was one of the first international law firms to operate in the PRC. The Beijing office is an integral part of our Greater China practice, and works closely with our offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Our Beijing office has particularly strong experience in energy and resources, corporate and commercial, banking and financial services, real estate, funds management, projects and infrastructure, and trade and distribution work. Our credentials, expertise and experience in these areas have seen us consistently ranked by independent surveys as a leading foreign law firm in the PRC.

Increasingly, we are working with Chinese companies interested in entering the Australian market, and have held many successful seminars in Beijing that have been attended by a number of Chinese companies and Australian Government representatives. Our team includes Australian and Chinese bilingual lawyers, who have hands-on experience working in both countries and are well versed in the issues facing their investors.

A leading firm Asia wide in Projects, Infrastructure & Energy; and Investment Funds
Chambers Asia 2009

A leading firm in China/Hong Kong in Banking & Finance, Corporate/M&A, Investment Funds, Insurance, and Real Estate and Projects, Infrastructure & Energy
Chambers Asia 2009

One of the top 10 (our style is for numerals above nine to be numbers, but please leave as 'ten' if this is a direct quote) legal advisers for China & Hong Kong in announced M&A deals
Bloomberg M&A League Tables, first half of 2008

Recent experience includes:

• acted for Tianshan Goldfields in relation to the exploration and development of the Gold Mountain Project in North West China and the preparations for listing on London's Alternative Investment Market. Tianshan is an Australian Stock Exchange-listed company controlled by Perth-based resource investment house Mineral Securities Ltd. This is one of the largest foreign-invested gold projects in China;
• advised Hunan Non-Ferrous Company Limited, a Hong Kong/PRC company, on an investment in the Australian resources sector shortly after a successful IPO in Hong Kong;
• acted as legal adviser for Fresenius Kabi (China) in its acquisition of 100 per cent of the equity in Cosco Pharm, the third-largest manufacturer of blood bags in China;
• advising a major Chinese state-owned investment corporation on strategic offshore fund investments;
• advising a major oil and gas company in respect of its entry into off-shore China oil and gas contracts, and related China regulatory issues;
• acting for a major UK-listed information services company on its strategic investment in a Beijing-based business information and credit reporting company;
• advised Standard Chartered Bank and Bayerische Hypo-un Vereinsbank AG on the financing for a US$95 million development of the Jinfeng gold mine in Guizhou Province, Southern China;
• assisted The Bank of New York Mellon on a range of banking and financial services matters in Hong Kong and the PRC, including: advising on Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Securities and Futures Commission requirements; reviewing and documenting custody arrangements in Hong Kong and the PRC; advising on matters concerning the expanding PRC Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor regime; and advising on the PRC regulatory aspects of its merger with Mellon Financial;
• acting for MGPA in connection with investigating proposed investments in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangdong, including due diligence review, negotiation, discussion and preparation of transaction proposals and related transaction documents;
• advised Brambles Industries Limited on landfill gas projects in China. This included advising on the management of landfill sites, management and conversion of the gas emissions to electricity, and on the potential for the project to obtain clean development mechanism approval;
• advised Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ on documentation of numerous facilities, derivatives and cash management transactions, and on regulatory and compliance issues. We have acted for BTMU in China since the mid-1990s.

Language capabilities:

English, Mandarin, Shanghainese, Japanese, Cantonese