The merger between Mallesons Stephen Jaques and Kwok & Yih announced late July has now completed.
The firm will formally practise under the name Mallesons Stephen Jaques.
The combined firm now offers a full service commercial legal capability in a range of practice areas with enhanced expertise in Corporate/M&A, Equity Capital Markets, including IPOs, commercial litigation and contentious regulatory matters and mainland China-related work.
Over the years, Mallesons has enjoyed tremendous success in Asia Pacific culminating in the firm, earlier this year, winning International Financial Law Review’s Regional Law Firm of the Year award. Recently the firm was also named Asian Legal Business’s Arbitration Law Firm of the Year.
Kwok & Yih, with founding partners Larry Kwok and Dieter Yih, built an outstanding reputation in a broad range of corporate and mainland China work. The firm proved to be a strong contender for work alongside international law firms operating in the region.
The combination of the two firms’ capabilities will ensure Mallesons’ continued thrust into the region securing the firm’s position as a serious, head-to-head competitor with top US and UK firms operating in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Over the past two months, client and market reaction to the proposed merger has been positive, generating enquiries and new instructions on China-related matters from existing and new clients alike where previously these organisations would have instructed other firms.
In reinforcing the strength of the new firm and its market acceptance, Mallesons’ Chief Executive Partner, Robert Milliner said: “We are delighted with the success that our association has brought. The synergies we identified during our pre-merger discussions have been understood and accepted by the market. As a result, our partners are already working together on a range of transactions.
“While Mallesons’ Construction, Projects, Debt Capital Markets, Securitisation and Dispute Resolution practices have continued to perform well in this market, this merger has strengthened and enhanced our Corporate and China practice capability and we are pleased that our clients have welcomed this development.
“The combined firm now offers a full commercial legal service with more local knowledge and language skills and a strategic footprint in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.”
Managing Partner, China for the combined operation, Larry Kwok concurs that the new firm is better able to service the many and varied needs of clients throughout China and internationally.
“Our focus will be on developing the Hong Kong/mainland China practice and as a joint force we are better able to serve the cross-border and multi-jurisdictional requirements of all of our clients,” said Mr Kwok.
“In particular, Mallesons is well placed to service the requirements of North-South and South-North investment flows, both within China and the Asia Pacific region as a whole,” he concluded.
The merger with Kwok & Yih means that Mallesons now has one of the most active Corporate/M&A practices in Hong Kong, with an impressive reputation, especially for PRC work. Recent deals include China Huaneng Group’s US$227 million acquisition of a 50% share of OzGen, the first offshore investment in a major power generating asset by a state-owned PRC power enterprise.
Additionally the firm now has one of the largest and most active groups of capital markets specialists, with the team now offering a combined wealth of experience of over 80 IPOs listed on both the Main and GEM Boards of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and a total amount of capital raised exceeding HK$15 billion.
Mallesons’ Beijing resources were recently strengthened when it took on three lawyers from the former local office of Denton Wilde Sapte. This, together with the merger with Kwok & Yih, means that Mallesons now has 66 fee earners in Hong Kong and mainland China, making it one of the top ten largest firms in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong the merged firm will shortly move into new offices on the 37th Floor of Two International Finance Centre.
View here details of Mallesons’ Hong Kong and mainland China capability.