Yao Zhou

Practice Areas

Banking and finance, foreign direct investment, merger and acquisition, private equity and venture capital investment.

Career

Yao Zhou is a senior partner at banking & finance department of Dacheng. She is the executive director of the Financial Leasing Law Research Center of the Financial Committee in Dacheng. Before joining Dacheng, she worked at another international law firm and focused her practice in general corporate and venture capital financing transactions. Mrs. Zhou joined a PRC law firm in May 2010 and started to focus on banking and finance, foreign direct investment, merger and acquisition and private equity and venture capital investment, in which she has accumulated extensive experience.

Professional Memberships

In 2015, appointed as a member of the China Contact Group by the Aviation Working Group, an international institution in the aviation financing and leasing industry, to recognize her experience and achievements as one of the few leading lawyers in China who are able to provide highly expertized legal services in this field;

In 2018, selected for the talent pool of foreign-related business lawyers that was established by the Ministry of Justice of China and was selected for the list of a Thousand Foreign-Related Business Lawyers of China;

In 2020, selected for the talent pool of foreign-related business lawyers that was established by the Beijing Lawyers Association;

In 2022, invited, as an individual, to be a member of ASBAA (Asian Business Aviation Association)’s China Commission, and participated in the work of the professional commission of “Aviation Law Tax/Assessment/Finance”;

In 2023, invited to be a career observation mentor in the Maritime and Aviation Group of the Qingzhu Plan jointly launched by Dacheng and China University of Political Science and Law, to provide pre-employment training and guidance for graduate law students and young lawyers.

Publications

• Participated in the edition and publication of the Chinese law portion of the Aviation Finance and Leasing section of Getting Your Deal Through in the year of 2016;

• Legal Inquiry for Finance: The Influence of New Measures on Registration of Pledged Accounts Receivables;

• Daily Civil Aviation IFLY: Guide on Foreign Assets of General Aviation Access;

• Daily Civil Aviation IFLY: Is the Registration of Corporate Aircrafts Registered Overseas Hard?

• Daily Civil Aviation IFLY: Ownership Share: Corporate Aircrafts Can be Purchased In This Way;

• Dacheng global website and LinkedIn: Airline Bankruptcy and Aircraft Retrieval -- from Chinese Perspective;

• Mrs. Zhou’s personal views on the exercise of the lessor’s right of recovery in respect of HNA Group’s restructuring when being interviewed by Airfinance Journal are quoted in the article titled Analysis: Will Lessors Retriever Aircraft in HNA Restructuring? by Airfinance Journal;

• ALB and LexisNexis: Can Non-foreign Related Contracts be Governed by Foreign Laws and Can Parties thereto Choose Foreign Arbitration;

• Dacheng’ WeChat public account: "Brief Description regarding Equity Pledge and its Risk Points of Establishment";

• Dacheng’ WeChat official account: An Understanding of the Main Rules of China’s Foreign Debt Supervision -- Starting from the Update of Foreign Debt in Early 2020;

• Dacheng’ WeChat official account: Analyzing the Effectiveness Review of Company Providing Guarantee to External Parties from “Jiumin Minutes”;

• Daily Civil Aviation IFLY: Things About Business Jet Trading and Financing;

• Dacheng’ WeChat official account: Enlightenment of Changes on the Guarantee of Civil Code to the Development of Aircraft Financing Projects;

• Dacheng’ WeChat official account: Regulations on Foreign Exchange of Cross-border Guarantee and Registration Operation;

• Dacheng’ WeChat official account: Regulatory Review and Prospect of Finance leasing Companies -- Starting from the Implementation of the New Regulation Supervising Finance Leasing Companies by the China Bank & Insurance Regulatory Commission;

• Dacheng’ WeChat official account: Analyzing Hainan’s New Policy on Free Trade Port from the Perspective of Aircraft Financial Leasing Business;

• Dacheng’ WeChat official account: New Situation of Foreign Investment in General Aviation Area -- Starting from the 2020 Negative List of Foreign Investment;

• Dacheng’ WeChat official account: Enlightenment from the Changes in the Guarantee Field of the Civil Code to the Aircraft Financing Project (II) -- on the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on the Application of Guarantee (Exposure Draft);

• Dacheng’ WeChat official account: Discussion on Cross-border RMB Investment and Financing from Notice on Further Improving Cross-border RMB Policy to Support Stabilizing Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment;

• Dacheng Law self-media platform: Brief Discussion on the Dilemma of judicial Auction System and Suggestions on Legislation and Judicial Practice -- Starting from the Current situation of Legal Auction Aircraft;

• Dacheng Law self-media platform: Suitability Analysis of Construction under Construction as Leasehold in Financial Leasing Project;

• Dacheng Law self-media platform: A Brief Analysis and Practical Discussion on Common Chinese Legal Issues Involved in Cross-border Asset Financing Projects.

Clients

Long-term general legal counsel of the Civil Aviation Administration of China;

A top financial leasing company in the PRC, which has been ranked the top 10 aircraft leasing companies in the world for many consecutive years;

China Eastern Air Logistics Co., Ltd., a modern integrated logistics service enterprise and the first enterprise who finished the pilot national civil aviation field mixed ownership reform;

A cargo airline, which is one of the first cargo airlines established by logistics companies;

Many leading enterprises in the aviation finance industry;

Multiple PRC and Asia Pacific clients with high net worth’s go to lawyer for the trading & financing of their corporate jets;

PRC domestic and foreign banks’ long-term cooperative lawyers for aircraft financing transactions.

Work Highlights

An expert in the aviation field, a good communicator, and a sophisticated deal maker.

Industry Sector Expertise

Banking and finance: Mrs. Zhou has gained rich experience in a range of transactions including structured finance, asset finance, acquisition finance, project finance and general lending. She regularly represents international and PRC banks and corporations in cross-border financing transactions and advises clients on PRC law related matters. In the aviation industry, in particular, she has experience in cross-border commercial aircraft financing and leasing. Mrs. Zhou has counselled banks and other lenders, lessors and airlines on a number of commercial aviation matters. She also participates in general aircraft transactions, including the financing, management, sale and purchase of corporate jets, sale and purchase of commercial aircraft and procurement of equipment for airlines and lessors.

Foreign direct investment: Mrs. Zhou regularly provides clients with legal services for the whole investment process, including providing comprehensive analysis on Chinese legal framework of foreign investment laws and regulations, analyzing on investment structure, assisting clients in holding discussions with Chinese government authorities on the issues arising from foreign investment approval process, and providing clients with legal advice on the resolution of disputes between joint venture partners.

Private equity and venture capital investment: Mrs. Zhou has represented emerging growth / start-up companies, mature public companies and private equity funds on a range of corporate legal transactions that include venture capital and private equity financings, initial public offerings in the U.S. and China; she worked closely with the best known China-focused institutional investors on their venture capital and private equity investments; she worked on cross-border merger & acquisition transactions involving jurisdictions such as Finland, Netherlands, Japan, Taiwan, Indian and the United States; and she advised foreign investors on setting up various investment vehicles in China.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

PRC

Languages Spoken

Chinese (native), English (proficient)

Education

Awards