Located in one of the world’s premier financial centers, K&L Gates’ Singapore office serves as the hub for the firm’s presence in Southeast Asia, serving a wide range of private sector clients involved in the transportation, financial services, natural resources, energy, oil & gas, agribusiness, telecommunications and technology sectors, as well as governments and state-owned enterprises.
The practice areas of capital markets, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, debt restructuring, corporate reorganizations, commercial bank financing transactions, investment management advice, international arbitration and commercial disputes are the main focus of our Singapore-based lawyers. Our Singapore office acts as a nexus for our broader expertise in the Asia-Pacific region, and our lawyers on the ground in Singapore have extensive experience in structuring, executing and closing corporate transactions and representing clients in dispute resolution matters in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka), South East Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, and the Philippines), North East Asia (Korea and Japan), and Indo-China (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos).
Our corporate lawyers based in Singapore have substantial experience working on capital markets, financing and restructuring deals throughout Southeast and South Asia. In working on these transactions, our lawyers not only take responsibility for the international aspects of the transaction, but are typically familiar with the local legal and regulatory business environment and ensure that the local counsel assigned to the matter address those local law issues. We believe that our Singapore-based lawyers have developed strong relationships with local lawyers in each of these jurisdictions which allow us, working together with these local lawyers, to provide “seamless service” for our clients.
A primary focus in our corporate group in the Singapore office is capital markets transactions, including both debt and equity offerings outside the United States in reliance on Regulation S and within the United States under Rule 144A. We also have substantial experience representing clients in convertible and exchangeable bond offerings.
In addition to our capital markets practice, our corporate capabilities include mergers and acquisitions, project development and finance, securitizations and other structured financing (including non-performing loan (NPL) and real estate capital markets work), work-outs and debt restructurings, acquisition financing, secured and unsecured lending, and derivatives. Our practice has a focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors representing sponsors, lenders, suppliers and other participants in projects throughout the ASEAN region, including Indonesia, as well as China, India, Korea and Japan.
As a major center of international arbitration, Singapore also cements the firm’s position as a leader in this field. Our dispute resolution capabilities in Singapore are focused on two broad areas: international arbitration and commercial disputes.
Our international arbitration team has broad experience in conducting international arbitrations throughout Asia and the world under a variety of ad-hoc, trade association and institutionally administered rules including United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), Badan Arbitrase Nasional Indonesia – Indonesian National Board of Arbitration (BANI), Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA), London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA), International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) and Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration (SCMA) amongst others.
The Singapore international arbitration and disputes team have particular experience in handling complex, high-value, cross-border disputes in the following sectors: construction, engineering and infrastructure (civil and marine); power and energy (particularly offshore oil and gas projects); trade and transport (particularly shipping and commodities); insurance coverage disputes and corporate commercial disputes.
The commercial disputes practice in Singapore also includes the following additional capabilities: