Asia Disputes & Restructuring

Your Conyers team has the experience to advise strategically on the resolution of disputes in your best interests — through early resolution, if it is possible to reach agreement with the other side, or through skilful advocacy, where that is the best option.

Our Asia Disputes & Restructuring Group (ADRG) brings solutions to legal challenges faced by Asian clients. Our team has decades of experience providing Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands advice to clients in Asia. We speak your language and truly understand the local business environment, practice and culture. Our attorneys based in Hong Kong, Singapore and our offshore locations operate around the clock as one team to ensure you have access to real-time advice and solutions across jurisdictions and time zones.

What Makes Conyers Different?

The combination of three strengths sets our service apart from other firms’ Asian offerings:

• Trilingual lawyers: Our Hong Kong and Singapore based team includes fully qualified lawyers across seniorities from partners to paralegals, who speak and read fluent Cantonese, English and Mandarin, ensuring there is no language barrier between our clients and those advising them. Our language abilities enable us to obtain accurate and detailed instructions from the outset, and provide you with real-time advice. Many of our team are locally qualified (non-practising) and have in-depth experience of the local practice.
• Talented advocates: Our exceptionally talented advocates are fully prepared to resolve high-risk, complex litigation and defend your interests in court. We approach each case with effective strategy and regularly appear as advocates in the most notable disputes and contentious restructuring cases. We are often engaged to represent Asian clients in long-running trials conducted in the three offshore jurisdictions. The world’s leading directories recognise our Bermuda, BVI and Cayman advocates as leaders in their fields.
• Cost-effective and coordinated model: Our Asian and offshore advocate teams work seamlessly as one team around the clock, providing a fully coordinated offering. We achieve successful and cost effective results through this proven model.

Our Expertise

Globally, Conyers’ disputes and restructuring practice is one of the largest and most experienced of any offshore law firm. The team comprises over 30 lawyers, ranging from junior lawyers to the most senior advocates in their jurisdictions, who appear in cases up to the Privy Council.

Dispute Resolution: The firm has acted in cross-jurisdictional, multi-billion dollar disputes involving offshore vehicles, for clients including banks, listed companies, private equity funds, liquidators, private companies and individual shareholders. In addition, we act for trustees, protectors and beneficiaries in substantial trust disputes.

Insolvency & Restructuring: Our clients include investment funds, creditors, shareholders, insolvency appointment takers, high net worth individuals, FTSE 100 companies and Fortune 500 companies. We work with most of the large onshore legal and accounting practices and restructuring & insolvency firms in leading financial centres around the world.

Some of our recent experience includes:

Bermuda

• Acting for Kingboard Chemical Holdings Limited (SEHK:148) and Kingboard Laminates Holdings Limited (SEHK:1888) in successfully defending a minority oppression claim through a full trial in the Supreme Court of Bermuda and a substantive appeal in the Bermuda Court of Appeal.
• Acting for National Arts Entertainment and Culture Group Limited (Hong Kong GEM Board: 8228), an all-round cultural entertainment company, on its debt restructuring.
• Advising Up Energy Development Group Limited (SEHK:307), a Bermuda incorporated coal-mining company based in China, on its debt restructuring, defending winding up petition and appointment of provisional liquidators for the purposes of restructuring.
• Advising the joint provisional liquidators in the winding up of one of the largest construction companies in China and south east Asia.
• Advising one of the largest film production and distribution companies in China, in the appointment of provisional liquidators and subsequent restructuring by way of a Bermuda scheme of arrangement.
• Advising Noble Group Limited, Asia’s leading independent energy product and industrial raw materials supply chain managers, on the implementation of a Bermuda scheme of arrangement in parallel with its English Scheme.
• Acting for Agritrade Resources Limited, a leading energy solutions provider headquartered in Singapore, in its debt restructuring.

British Virgin Islands

• Acting for the majority shareholder in Ming which recently produced a Privy Council decision delineating the scope of the appellate process in unfair prejudice claims. Conyers acted at every stage of the proceedings, from inception to Privy Council hearing.
• Acting for the claimants in a derivative action for breach of directors’ duties, concerning the sale of a pharmaceutical business in the PRC. The matter gave rise to a five week trial for which judgment is currently awaited.
• Acting in connection with the estate of a high net worth individual in the mining sector, dealing with forum challenge issues in relation to related Singaporean proceedings.
• Acting for the claimant in an unfair prejudice claim which led to a virtual trial in Q3 2020 relating to palm oil interests in Indonesia.
• Enforcement of an arbitration award relating to a leading cosmetic business joint venture in Asia.
• Re Crown Treasure – long running unfair prejudice claim concerning ultimate interest in a 5-star hotel in the PRC which gave rise to a five week trial and appeal now on appeal to the Privy Council given rise to reported decisions both on the proportionality of relief upon finding of limited unfair prejudice and also recoverability of fees for non-admitted BVI lawyers
• Acting for a creditor in the liquidation of Phoenix Commodities a leading commodities trader.

Cayman Islands

• Acting for two of the beneficiaries in a leading Cayman trust dispute which gave rise to restatement of the principles applicable to “Category 2” Public Trustee -v- Cooper applications. The case also provided useful guidance for both trustees and beneficiaries who are seeking to negotiate proposals for the distribution of assets held in discretionary trusts, which are likely to be the subject of Court blessing applications.
• Acting in the Bitmain shareholder litigation.
• Acting for the liquidators of Lung Ming Mining Co Ltd.
• Acting in the Pacific Fertility Institutes Holding Limited liquidation (also in BVI), acting for the petitioner and 50% shareholder of PFI. This case saw the appointment of JPLs to prevent dissipation of the company’s assets, and subsequently Conyers obtained an order winding up the company on the ground that it had lost its substratum.
• Acting in the high profile Luckin Coffee litigation.