Mayer Brown is a global law firm with offices in 27 cities across the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It has been serving its clients in China since the 1990s with offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong where it has more than 200 lawyers specialising in various industries. The firm’s Hong Kong office provides pragmatic and commercial legal advice for both domestic and foreign companies.
Focusses / specialisms
The firm is best known in Hong Kong SAR and China for its restructuring and insolvency, projects, banking, debt and securitization capital markets practice.
The corporate restructuring team is active in cross-border restructurings and insolvency, such as bond restructurings, scheme of arrangement, trust asset claims adjudication, and credit distress.
The firm is also highly regarded with its top-tier debt capital market practice where its high-yield practice is active in representing trustees on bond issuances. Apart from the above, the team also has strong financial regulatory practice.
Key clients
Key clients of the firm include
Cathay Pacific, Kerry Properties, HSBC, China Merchants Group, CDB, Caitong Funds, ICBC, Sun Hung Kai & Co., Malayan Banking Berhad, KPMG, Ernest & Young and PwC.
Research period review:
33rd edition (2022/2023)
During the research period the firm was busy in capital markets, corporate M&A, private equity, investment funds, projects, and restructuring and insolvency transactions.
The firm’s capital markets team was very active in equity, debt and high-yield markets including block trades, REITs, IPOs, investment grade/bond programmes, convertible bond/note programmes, guarantee notes, sustainability bonds and high-yield bond/note issues for clients from jurisdictions such as China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.
The firm’s corporate team was occupied by public and private acquisitions advising both buy and sell side with industry specialties in banks, chemicals, real estate, education, and aviation, shipping and transportation.
In the investment funds area, the team kept busy with fundraising, fund formation, fund restructuring, and UCIT advising investors across all asset strategies including private equity funds, hedge funds, real estate and infrastructure funds, venture capital funds, mezzanine funds, distressed debt funds, renewable and traditional energy funds, funds of funds and hybrid funds. The firm also expanded its investment funds team with senior associate Kaile Yang.
In the project space, the team provided legal advice to lenders, borrowers, agents, creditors, guarantors, equity investors, developers and EPC contractors. Active industry sectors included construction and materials, oil & gas and utilities, and energy and infrastructure such as hydropower, renewable energy and wind power.
In the restructuring and insolvency space, the team continued acting for creditors, issuers and other debtors, insolvency practitioners and corporate trustees, including on bond restructurings, schemes of arrangement including in relation to the resumption of trading in shares of distressed listed companies, trust asset claims adjudication and cross-border enforcement upon insolvency and credit distress, as well as acting for alternative credit providers increasingly active in the market. Registered foreign consultant Benjamin P. McCosker joined the team from Campbells in London in 2022, having previously worked for Walkers.
Deal highlights: 33rd edition (2022/2023)
Republic of Indonesia’s $1 billion 3.550% bonds due 2032 and $750 million 4.300% bonds due 2052.
HK$5.26 billion debt financing to a JV between ESR and ChinaChem for the acquisition of a logistics site in Kwai Chung, Hong Kong.
$500 million dual currency syndicated social and corporate loan facilities to China Gas Capital Management.
$3.5 billion debt restructuring of Hong Kong-listed Genting Hong Kong.
$600 million restructure and recapitalisation of Cell C.
Client feedback: 33rd edition (2022/2023)
Bank lending
“Very responsive and able to guide us through the complexity of local regulation. The international/English law team and the Vietnamese team worked well together to ensure linked-up service delivery.”
Capital markets
“Very intelligent and experienced in the DCM space and contributed to the ICMA debt capital market work in Asia.”
“The team are always there and provide professional advice addressing our concerns and most important questions. They consistently deliver high-quality work products.”
“They are able to provide feedback on the company's consulting matters in good time, and give practical legal advice from the perspective of the company's interests.”
“Very responsive with high efficiency.”
Financial services regulatory
“Mayer Brown always responded quickly, provided their advice in detail and set out all possible options to facilitate our consideration.”
Project finance
“Commercial approach and understanding of client need and drivers.”
Project development
“Very responsive. Proactive. Highly knowledgeable about project documentation. Support lenders well.”
Restructuring
“Professional, on time, reliable.”
Insolvency
“They are competent on insolvency law in Hong Kong and very practical.”
“Mayer Brown provides commercial and pragmatic advice and has a deep understanding of the sensitivities and stakeholder management needed to effect a successful restructuring (in and outside of a court-appointed insolvency process).”
Investment funds
“We had a perfect workout with Mayer Brown and everything went smoothly so that the fund could be setup per our expectation. The engagement partner and correspondence lawyer is familiar with both HK laws and Cayman regulations so they can always provide prompt and professional advice. It's very helpful for our decision-making.”
“Attention to detail; global offering, extreme professionalism.”
“They are nice professionals and can be quick with the right answers to questions.”
“They helped us to link to their US litigation team, and the US team gave very valuable advice on what we should/shouldn't do next.”
Lawyer feedback: 33rd edition (2022/2023)
Bonnie Yung
“Able to provide timely feedback, professional advice and solve problems.”
Ben McCosker
“Ben has made a tremendously positive impact on the MB HK team since his arrival. He is sensible, fair, commercial and across the detail.”
David Harrison
“Commercial approach and knowledge of the jurisdiction.”
“Professional, efficient, reliable and very sharp.”
Guiping Lu
“A very experienced and intelligent lawyer that I can trust. He contributed to our work in Asia substantially.”
“He is best of the best in debt offering practice and a trustworthy professional you could always go to when you have tough questions. Guiping is also very hard-working and is able to manage his team very well to meet the client's expectations perfectly. Always delivers on time with high quality.”
“Responsive with good knowledge of the industry.”
John Marsden
“John Marsden is the longstanding leader of the practice and is incredibly well respected in the industry. He is a go-to individual in the R&I market.”
Matthew Chow
“Very responsive, accurate, thorough and easy to deal with.”
“Good communication. Proactive. Very knowledgeable about documentation. Supports lenders. Strong organisational and follow-up abilities.”
Paul Moloney
“He did very well on sharing his practical experience with us.”
Inez Ma
“Able to respond to company comments in time.”
