Asialaw Profiles
The Guide to the legal markets of the Asia-Pacific

White & Case has had an active year on the banking side, with the practice benefiting from the firm’s close relationship with China Development Bank. One peer notes: “White & Case has developed a very solid practice through its relationship with CDB. The firm has grown and expanded its banking team over the last year.”

White & Case has seen an increased volume of China M&A work over the last year. For example, Shanghai-based partner John Leary led a team advising GMR Group in the US$1.2 billion sale of its 50% stake in worldwide power generation firm InterGen. The stake was sold to state-owned China-Huaneng Group, which is China’s largest power generation company.

White & Case has been strong on the banking side this past year, largely as a result of the firm’s close relationship with China Development Bank. “White & Case has grown and expanded its banking team this past year,” says one peer.

Partners John Hartley and Baldwin Cheng recently advised Deutsche Bank, Macquarie Capital, UBS and DBS Bank as joint mandated lead arrangers and joint mandated bookrunners on the financing for MMI Precision Technologies’ acquisition of Intri-Plex Technologies. Partner John Shum is also known as a leading lawyer at the firm.

White & Case expanded its M&A team in the past year with the joining of bengoshi partners Jun Usami and Ayako Kawano from Paul Hastings. Housing a team of Japanese and foreign lawyers, the firm can often be seen on cross border deals. A notable transaction saw Brian Strawn and his team act as special Japan counsel to French automotive components manufacturer Valeo on its acquisition of over 97% of the shares in Niles, a maker of automotive switches and electronic components.

Most firms in Tokyo specialise in either real estate or construction, but the six-partner team at White & Case has an equally strong offering in both areas. This enables it to capture a top tier ranking this year. On the real estate side, a team led by Tetsuya Morimoto worked closely with the firm’s tax group on many real estate fund issues. One example saw the firm advise Shinsei Bank in the largest financial restructuring in Japan in 2010. This was in connection with the bank’s financing of subsidiaries of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund VI for the acquisition of the ANA Hotels portfolio. Partner Mark Goodrich is in charge of the construction practice, and he was kept busy by an offshore construction contractor in a dispute against an oil exploration company in ICC arbitration proceedings in Dubai.

Noted by counterparts for having a “small but significant” team, White & Case is a solid presence in the dispute resolution space in Japan. Heading up the practice is IP expert David Case, and Mark Goodrich and Robert Grondine are recommended for their skills in international arbitration. Drawing on the expertise of other practice groups in the firm, the team provides both domestic and foreign law advice across a broad spectrum of areas like construction, tax, employment, and financial services. Notably, the team is working with its other offices on representing a Japanese manufacturer and affiliates in putative antitrust class action litigation by direct and indirect purchasers of thin-film translator liquid crystal displays.

White & Case demonstrated its commitment to the energy and natural resources practice by promoting Alexander Woody to the partnership in January 2011 and adding two associates who have experience on LNG projects internationally. One notable feature of its practice is the firm’s established presence in the clean energy sector, and JBIC is engaging the team to provide Japanese and US law advice on its investment in the Blythe project. This is said to be one of the largest solar projects planned on US public land.

The Tokyo office is again advising JBIC on the development, construction and operation of an IPP project in Mexico. Partners Hendrik Gordenker and Mark Goodrich are the two key contacts and can be found on many of the important projects involving the team.

Headed up by partner Gary Thomas, White & Case’s tax team provides highly integrated local and foreign tax advice as well as economic analysis. This sets it apart from its competitors. The group remained active in the past year, representing companies in various industries on matters like tax audits, administrative tax appeals and tax litigation. It also cooperated with Bureau van Dijk, a global publisher of financial databases, to launch a programme to help companies achieve cost efficiencies. In April 2011, the team suffered the departure of leading tax specialist Eric Roose, who took with him of counsel Michael Shikuma and two zeirishi to rival firm Morrison & Foerster.

Recognised for its expertise in IPOs, high yield debt, private placements, medium term notes and other debt programmes, White & Case’s capital markets practice continues its focus on Singapore, Greater China, India, Indonesia and Thailand.

In one highlight deal this year, renowned securities lawyer Kaya Proudian and banking counsel Sin Teck Lim represented BTS Group Holdings in its Regulation S issue of THB10 billion US dollar settled 1.0% standby letter of credit-backed convertible bonds due 2016. This was the first convertible bond from Thailand in several years and the first debt deal out of Thailand in 2011.

In the banking and finance space, partner and financing expert Guan Feng Chen advised Viva, an operator of two Indonesian TV stations, TV One and ANTV, in a US$54 million pre-IPO financing arranged by Credit Suisse.

Kate Allchurch is another key contributor in this area. Meanwhile, the arrival of senior structured finance expert David Barwise, project finance expert Ken Hawkes, and asset and project finance expert Niel Liebenberg, as well as the promotion of Jamie Thomas to counsel, has left clients expecting big things from the firm in the coming 12 months.

Under the guidance of widely respected M&A lawyers William Kirschner and Charlie Wilson, White & Case’s 13-lawyer corporate/M&A team specialises in complex, cross border work across the Southeast Asia region.

In one significant transaction, Kirschner, together with Moscow-based energy and utilities partner Igor Ostapets, advised TNK-BP in its US$1.8 billion acquisition of BP’s upstream and pipeline assets in Vietnam and Venezuela. This was BP’s largest asset sale post the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and one of the largest transactions in the international energy markets post crisis.

White & Case’s six member Singapore energy, infrastructure, projects and asset finance team is known for its strength in Singaporean, Indonesian and Thai projects.

It was bolstered this year with the arrival of partner Ken Hawkes, and counsel Niel Liebenberg, from Hogan Lovells.

In one unresolved case this year, Hawkes and fellow partner Sebastian Buss are advising Singapore’s Island Power on the proposed S$1.2 billion financing for the construction of a power project in Singapore. In December, Buss also represented Standard Chartered Bank on a US$120 million financing provided to Multi Harapan Utama’s coal operations in Indonesia.