Watson Farley & Williams, Shipping | Chambers Asia-Pacific Profile

About

Provided by Watson Farley & Williams

WFW has the largest dedicated maritime practice of any law firm in the world, with 200 lawyers (50 of which in Asia) in 15 global offices. With bases in all key shipping centres, including well-established offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok, WFW is a leading legal powerhouse across much of the Asia Pacific region’s maritime operations.

Our sector focus distinguishes us from the shipping practices of other firms; our expert lawyers work in the maritime industry daily, enabling us to provide our clients with innovative and commercially savvy advice. In addition to a thriving ship finance team, our dedicated practice goes beyond pure maritime transport and includes legal expertise in related sectors such as offshore oil and gas, LNG, container boxes, ports and logistics, cruise and ferries.

Whilst being integrated geographically (meaning we’re able to advise cohesively on complex cross-border deals), our teams are also structured to collaborate vertically. In this way, our acclaimed shipping practice works in partnership with our specialist practitioners in asset finance, competition and regulatory, sanctions, corporate, commercial contracts, disputes, tax and employment law, to ensure we are equipped to advise across the entire maritime value chain.

Chambers Review

Provided by Chambers

Shipping: Finance - Asia-Pacific Region

Band 1

What the team is known for

Watson Farley & Williams has an outstanding regional ship finance legal team, especially renowned for its prowess in China and Singapore, together with its noted Thailand office. The regional team also works regularly on financing and restructuring transactions for Korean ECAs and commercial banks. Its talented practitioners provide expertise to leading financial institutions and ship owners on sale and leaseback transactions, loan facilities and debt restructuring, particularly on matters pertaining to FPSOs and other offshore vessels. The firm is also active advising Chinese leasing companies, and regularly advises international banks. The team handles matters across the oil and gas, logistics, and cruise and ferry industries.

Notable practitioners

Madeline Leong in Hong Kong and Andrew Nimmo in Singapore are key points of contact for the firm's regional practice.

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Work Highlights

Provided by Watson Farley & Williams

Watson Farley & Williams advised Hamburg Commercial Bank in relation to a senior secured term loan facility totalling AUD95 million. The loan was arranged for Hamburg Bulk Carriers to refinance seven Liberian-flagged vessels.
Watson Farley & Williams advised SPDB Financial Leasing on the sale and leaseback of eight bulk carriers, including both second-hand carriers and newbuilds.
Watson Farley & Williams advised Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation on a USD170.2 million facility provided for the financing of a newbuild LNG carrier, to be bareboat-chartered to H-Line Shipping and further time-chartered to POSCO International.

Strengths

Provided by Chambers

"They have a very knowledgeable and robust team as well as a global footprint to assist us in multiple jurisdictions."