Baker McKenzie has been recognized for its work on six deals in the areas of corporate restructuring, project finance, private equity and aviation finance at a number of industry awards, including most recently The Asia Legal Awards 2022, the Asset Triple A Sustainable Infrastructure Awards 2022 and the Airline Economics Aviation 100 Awards earlier this year.
The Asia Legal Awards honor the best work in the region and identify the most important transactions and cases with the most complex and outstanding legal work in Asia. Baker McKenzie was recognized for three headline deals, which were awarded "Deals of the Year". They are:
- Finance Deal of the Year: Insolvency and Restructuring - USD 170 billion restructuring of Hong Kong-listed HNA Holdings
- Finance Deal of the Year: Projects - Financing for Taiwan's Zhong Neng Offshore Wind Project
- Private Equity Deal of the Year - Kuehne+Nagel's USD 1.5 billion acquisition of Apex International
For the USD 170 billion restructuring of Hong Kong-listed HNA Holdings deal, our Aviation Finance team in Hong Kong and Shanghai has mobilized the Firm's multidisciplinary expertise and teams across offices to provide the most suited legal services for the client. Baker McKenzie acted as HNA Group Airlines counsel in completing the lease restructuring for their whole fleet of aircraft within a short period of time. This demonstrates the Firm's bench depth, strong expertise and experience in handling mega deal size of this kind. The Baker McKenzie team was led by Allen Ng, with the support from a team including Simon Hui, Gege Li, Terry Xu, Gordon Qiu, Louis Ma and Lucas Shen.
The Taiwan Zhong Neng Offshore Wind Project, which won "Finance Deal of the Year: Projects" at the Asia Legal Awards, also won "Taiwan Renewable Energy Deal Of the Year – Offshore Wind" at the Asset Triple A Sustainable Infrastructure Awards 2022. Baker McKenzie acted as Taiwan legal counsel to the sponsors (Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners ("CIP") and China Steel Corporation ("CSC")) and the project company (China Steel Power Corporation). This deal is the first majority Taiwanese bank non-recourse financing of an offshore wind farm in Taiwan and also the most “localized” offshore wind project in Taiwan to date. The 298MW offshore wind farm is being financed through a combination of equity from CIP's Copenhagen Infrastructure IV fund and CSC and loans from a consortium of 20 banks. The Baker McKenzie team was led by Murray Bowler, with the support from a team of lawyers including Su-Fen Chen, Evangeline Wang, Julia King, Andrew Lee, Shinn-Yih Ho, Tom Chou, Yiting Lin, Sophia Huang, Jady Kao, Hui-Heng Hong, Vivienne Cheng and Wan-Yu Lee.
Moreover, Baker McKenzie was recognized for acting on the Vena Energy NTD 7.78 billion term loan facility, which was named "Taiwan Renewable Energy Deal of the Year – Solar" at the Asset Triple A Sustainable Infrastructure Awards 2022. The Firm acted as international and Taiwan legal counsel to the sponsor Vena Energy on the project financing of the Yunlin E2 Solar Energy Project in Yunlin County, Taiwan. This financing deal represents the largest non-recourse international-style/ standard project financing of a Taiwan solar energy project to date. The deal team was led by Murray Bowler, assisted by Evangeline Wang, Su-Fen Chen, Yiting Lin and Jady Kao.
In addition, the Dau Tieng Tay Ninh Energy Joint Stock Company USD 160.5 million project finance loan was named "Vietnam Renewable Energy Deal of the Year - Solar". Led by Vit Vatanayothin, the Firm's Bangkok office acted as international counsel to the sponsor, B.Grimm Power Public Company Limited. Meanwhile, the Firm was also awarded "Project Finance Law Firm of the Year" in Vietnam at the Asset Triple A Sustainable Infrastructure Awards 2022.
Elsewhere, the Firm's Aviation Finance team in Hong Kong and Shanghai was recognized for its legal work in the AVIC Leasing Bathazar Financing for four A321NX, which won "Asia Pacific Supported Finance Deal of the Year" at the Airline Economics Aviation 100 Awards. The awards recognize the achievements of the leading companies and individuals in the area of aviation finance and leasing. The Baker McKenzie team was led by Allen Ng with the support of Terry Xu and Gege Li.