After its split from Clifford Chance in 2008, the market was curious to see how the WongPartnership would adapt and evolve without its international partner. In truth, apart from a few initial partner departures, the transition has been relatively smooth and now the firm is beginning to build again in key areas....
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After its split from Clifford Chance in 2008, the market was curious to see how the WongPartnership would adapt and evolve without its international partner. In truth, apart from a few initial partner departures, the transition has been relatively smooth and now the firm is beginning to build again in key areas.
Along with Allen & Gledhill, the firm is the only outfit in Singapore to feature in the top tier in capital markets, banking and M&A. In the capital markets space peers point to the firm's manpower and capacity as a key driver of its success. "It's a large team but there's less numbers of pure banking partners, it's a lot of capital markets practitioners," says one peer.
Within the large capital markets team, clients were most taken with managing partner Rachel Eng. "Committed to the client's cause and willing to take a commercial view without compromising on legal compliance," says one and another agrees: "She's able to give good commercial advice. She continues to manage her managing partner and counsel roles well."
Partner Karen Yeoh was also kept busy on capital markets work and advised on the S$3.9 billion ($3.2 billion) IPO of Global Logistic Properties (GLP). She served as the legal advisor to the joint global coordinators, JPMorgan and Citigroup Global Markets Singapore, and joint underwriters, including China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities, China International Capital Corporation, DBS Bank, UBS and Nomura Securities. This is the first IPO of a company in which the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation has a majority stake.
In one of the largest property financing deals of the year, partner Christy Lim acted for Orchard Turn Retail Investment, which is owned by CapitaMalls Asia and Sun Hung Kai Properties, in its refinancing. The transaction resulted in the granting of syndicated credit facilities of S$1.62 billion from lenders like the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, DBS Bank, Malayan Banking, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, and Standard Chartered Bank.
The M&A team is also highly thought of in the market: "They know exactly what they're doing. The crème de la crème on deals," says one peer.
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