China Practice
The Latham & Watkins' China Practice provides practical legal solutions to companies doing business in China. With offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, we are able to combine our local knowledge of the Chinese marketplace with the depth of an international practice that stretches across 27 offices worldwide.
With more than 10 years of experience representing clients in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, our China Practice has participated in the expansion and development of the region's economy through our involvement in a variety of investment activities. Latham's practice in China has grown considerably in recent years and was most recently augmented with the addition of a Shanghai office in 2005. Our team includes partners and associates who are fluent in both written and spoken Mandarin and have received both US and PRC legal education and training. We assist clients involved in all areas of business activity coming into and flowing out of China.
Our experience in China includes:
- Capital Markets
- Private Equity and Venture Capital
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Leveraged Finance
- Structured Finance
- Syndicated Lending
- Project Development
- Foreign Direct Investment
- International Litigation, Arbitration and Dispute Resolution
Corporate
We have a very active capital markets practice in China. As counsel to issuers or underwriters, our attorneys have been involved in many international equity, debt and equity-linked offerings by issuers in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. These transactions have included US-SEC registered offerings, such as NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) IPOs, Rule 144A and Regulation S placements and Hong Kong IPOs. In addition, we have advised a large number of China-based companies in their pre-IPO and early-stage financings.
We are active in representing financial and strategic investors who are investing in China, and have advised some of the world's leading private equity and venture capital funds in a variety of investment and acquisition activities, ranging from VC financing through expansion capital to buyouts. Our strategic investor clients have included some of the world's leading industrial and services companies.
Finance
Latham's Finance attorneys provide the full range of legal services to financial institutions and other clients participating in financing projects and transactions. Our finance lawyers bring a wealth of experience to their representation of both lenders and borrowers, in connection with the structuring, negotiating, drafting, restructuring and administration of credit arrangements of all types.
Our Project Finance attorneys have been actively involved in China's most complex project finance transactions. We have a premier practice encompassing all phases of project development and finance, including corporate structuring, project company formation, permitting, financing, construction and operation of a broad range of project types.
We also represent a range of clients in securitizing and financing assets, financing acquisitions and in restructuring debt. In the leveraged finance area, we have advised financial sponsors and banks in connection with corporate acquisitions in China, including the first leveraged buy-out of a state-owned enterprise in China.