Drew & Napier remains one of the market leaders in the restructuring and insolvency area, which is built on the strong foundations provided by its litigation practice and driven forward by a number of key individuals.The market highlights a number of partners within the team, but it is Julian Kwek in particular who seems to be a favourite among clients....
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Drew & Napier remains one of the market leaders in the restructuring and insolvency area, which is built on the strong foundations provided by its litigation practice and driven forward by a number of key individuals.
The market highlights a number of partners within the team, but it is Julian Kwek in particular who seems to be a favourite among clients. "I am very impressed with Julian's commitment and professionalism. His team is not there only to provide legal advice, but more importantly, they always come out with an outside the box solution to address risks and concerns that the clients might have."
Backing up its reputation, last year partners Chan Wei Meng, Raymond Lam and Sushil Nair, co-head of the restructuring and insolvency practice, acted for the controlling shareholders of TT International, a global electronics distributor, in a S$600 million ($495 million) insolvency case. The Singapore Court of Appeals gave the company broad directions in restructuring, and Drew & Napier was able to assist in avoiding liquidation and successfully structure S$503 million in debt.
Senior counsel Davinder Singh and partner Blossom Hing also advised the trustee of bonds in the insolvency of Celestial Nutrifoods, which is estimated to be worth S$274 million. This continuing matter is notable because the majority of the Singaporean company's assets are in China, requiring cross-border expertise.
In the banking team, partner Sandy Foo, who has recently returned to the firm after a secondment at BNP Paribas, was praised for her commercial sense: "Sandy is extremely hard working and responsive, but her best attribute I think is her commerciality. She is an excellent technical lawyer but never takes overly technical points (unlike many local lawyers) and always works hard to find legally and commercially acceptable compromises, which is an essential part of being a good and experienced transactional lawyer."
In another unresolved transaction, directors Ralph Lim and Benedict Teo are representing RBS and Macquarie Capital, who are acting as the joint financial advisors to RHC Healthcare, a vehicle created by RHC Holdings and Fortis Healthcare. RHC Healthcare offered to pay S$3.2 billion ($2.33 billion) to acquire all issued shares in Parkway Holdings. However, Khazanah Nasional made a successful competing offer.
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