Clara is a partner in our corporate department. She specialises in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, listings and corporate finance, and has advised on many domestic and cross-border transactions, Hong Kong public takeovers, private equity deals, securities transactions and spin-offs.
Clara is recognised as a ‘Highly Regarded Lawyer’ and a ‘Women Leader’ in M&A, Capital Markets: Equity and Capital Markets: Debt in Hong Kong in IFLR1000 Asia Pacific 2023.
Her recent highlights include advising:
- Standard Chartered Bank on its digital bank joint venture (Mox Bank) with PCCW, HKT and Ctrip.com. Mox Bank was one of the first successful applicants to have obtained a virtual bank licence from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority
- Prudential plc on the demergers of M&G and Jackson
- Alibaba Group on its acquisition of the South China Morning Post
- HNA Group on a number of public acquisitions and disposals, including the mandatory general offers for Tysan Holdings and China Shun Ke Long, the acquisition of a 25% stake in Hilton (as international counsel) and the sale of HKICIM to Blackstone
- Standard Chartered plc on its 2-for-7 rights issue
Clara is the only lawyer to have advised on all three takeovers of Hong Kong banks in recent years:
- Advising Chong Hing Bank on its US$1.5 billion takeover by Yue Xiu Enterprises
- Advising OCBC on its US$4.95 billion privatisation of Wing Hang Bank. This transaction won the ‘M&A Deal of the Year: North Asia’ at The American Lawyer’s Asia Legal Awards 2015 and the ‘M&A Deal of the Year’ at the IFLR Asia Awards 2015
- Advising a bidder on the auction sale of Nanyang Commercial Bank (which was sold for US$8.8 billion)
Clara has advised in various capacities on the public takeovers of many Hong Kong listed companies including HAECO, Li & Fung, Alibaba.com, Little Sheep, HKICIM, China Shun Ke Long, Tysan Holdings, Chong Hing Bank and Wing Hang Bank.
In ECM, she has advised on many Hong Kong IPOs and listings, including those of PICC, Swire Properties (spun off from Swire Pacific), Beijing Enterprises Urban Resources Group (spun off from Beijing Enterprises Water Group), Golden Throat, Yidu Tech and Fosun International. The PICC IPO was the largest IPO in Hong Kong in 2011-2012 and the fourth largest IPO globally (2012) which set a global record for the number of underwriters. Clara also has substantial experience in advising large cap companies on spin-offs and separate listings of their subsidiaries.
In private equity, Clara has advised clients such as Baring, SoftBank Vision Fund and Goldman Sachs PIA on investments into PRC companies at different stages, ranging from pre-IPO investments, cornerstone investments to PIPE deals.
In addition, Clara regularly advises on corporate governance and listing rules matters. Clients include multinational companies with a dual listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and foreign stock exchanges.
Clara is admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales and Hong Kong and speaks fluent Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese). She read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.