Four Ogier partners in Hong Kong named in ALB Offshore Client Choice 2023

Four leading partners from Ogier's team in Hong Kong feature in Asian Legal Business's list of the region's most distinguished offshore lawyers - head of Investment Funds Nicholas Plowman, investment funds partner Lin Han, Global head of Corporate Nathan Powell, and Anthony Oakes, head of Banking and Finance in Hong Kong.

The ALB Client Choice List is based on client recommendations and includes legal professionals who have outperformed their peers and earned wide recognition for their high-quality advice and support. It is the eighth consecutive year on the list for Nicholas and Anthony.

In an interview with ALB, to mark the publication of the Client Choice List, the four partners talked about recent work highlights and their approach to exceptional client service.

Can you share some work highlights from the past year?

LH: The end of 2022 was a tough period for the PRC/HK market. Many funds experienced liquidity issues as their originally liquid assets turned illiquid. Continuation funds are an innovative way to deal with the issue and I did do some restructurings of this nature.

AO: In recent years, we have seen an increase in the size and sophistication of the private credit market in Asia. Accordingly, we have worked with private credit funds and onshore firms on transactions which required innovative solutions under tight timeframes. For example, we acted for Ares SSG on a joint venture with New World Development for the construction, development and sale of a commercial complex in Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong. At the same time, we have seen an uptick in the amount and complexity of fund financing. We have partnered with our Jersey and Luxembourg teams on some of these transactions. In terms of award nominated deals, we acted for Blackrock on a US$300 million secured financing to Traveloka, an Indonesian-based online travel agency.

Nicholas P: There have been several highlights in the last year, including advising Siegfried Capital Partners on the establishment and launch of Siegfried Global Trade Finance Fund SPC, a CIMA regulated mutual fund, and its first segregated portfolio, Siegfried Global Trade Finance Fund SP I – this fund was awarded Best Emerging Hedge Fund in Asia by Bloomberg in March this year. An associated Siegfried managed fund, VTeam Siegfried Supply Chain Finance Fund – nicknamed “SCP5” – also recently won performing hedge fund award in the category of Specialist Finance and Credit at the HFM Awards in November 2022. Ogier also acted as Cayman legal counsel for this fund.

Nathan P: The HK corporate space saw a tough market in 2022 against a year of testing market conditions – ongoing rates hike, inflation and geopolitical tensions. However, our firm's emphasis on complex, cross-border matters and our collaboration across our jurisdictions has helped us to overcome these challenges. In 2022, we advised on a number of cross-border M&A transactions, de-spac business combinations and a take private transaction.

How would you describe your approach to providing exceptional client service?

LH: I try to put myself in the client's shoes and think how I can make their life easier. With that in mind, the solutions I come up with and my presentation of the solutions will hopefully be more helpful to the client.

AO: Early in my career, I worked in-house for a period. In that role, I experienced, first hand, being the recipient of legal advice. Since then, I have been focussed on keeping advice as clear, concise and practical as possible. To ensure the practicality of advice, one needs to understand the client's business and the circumstances which they currently face. For client service, it is also vital to have a strong team. Over my nearly ten years at Ogier, I have been lucky enough to hire some excellent team members and, together, we are able to advise clients effectively in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Nicholas P: Ogier's Hong Kong funds team is now the largest offshore funds team in the Hong Kong market and provides a hands-on approach, with timely responses, and specialises in guiding newly formed asset managers. Our lawyers provide advice across a very wide sphere of investment fund work including private equity, hedge funds and venture capital work, which means we have deep experience in respect of the investment funds structures and terms being utilised and offered throughout the market. We also have excellent relationships with the key service providers in the funds industry as well, and we like to cultivate those networks through mutual referral relationships. This has proved really successful for us in building our own ecosystem of top tier service providers for our clients.