Frances Woo

Frances Woo is Managing Partner of the Hong Kong office and Local Practice Group Head of both the Corporate and Commercial and Private Client and Trusts departments. Prior to joining the firm in 1994, Frances practised corporate and commercial law in Toronto, Canada. She became a partner at Appleby in 1997 and Managing Partner of the Hong Kong office in 2000.

Frances practises a full range of corporate and commercial law particularly specialising in mergers and acquisitions, advising on public and private offerings of debt and equity, restructurings, structured and other finance matters and funds work (mutual funds, unit trusts, limited partnerships, private equity).  Clients include Manulife International, AXA, Jardine Matheson, HongKong Land, Mandarin Oriental, Shangri-La Asia, South China Morning Post and global and regional financial institutions, listed entities and private equity houses.

Frances is a regular speaker at international and regional conferences, including the IFLR Asia M&A Forum, GAIM Asia and Terralex.

Frances is frequently invited to write articles on all aspects of offshore market trends in Asia and contributes to a variety of publications, including ‘Market Trend: Private Equity in Asia’ on Mondaq and Terralex and mostly recent ‘China Outbound: To Infinity and Beyond’ in the IFLR China Offshore Guide 2011.

Frances is a member of the International Bar Association, the Inter-Pacific Bar Association, the Law Society of Hong Kong and a non-practising member of the Law Society of England and Wales and the Law Society of Upper Canada.  She is also a founding member of the Asia Pacific Offshore Institute.

She is fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Recent experience includes advising: 

• Advised Permira, which is a European private equity firm with global reach, on its acquisition of Kingsbridge Limited for approximately US$200 million. This is the first deal by Permira in Asia since the financial crisis.

• Advised International Finance Corporation ("IFC"), a member of the World Bank Group, in relation to China Wind Power's guarantee of the facility with an aggregate value of US$152 million. The loan will support the development and construction of Gansu Guazhou Ganhekou No.8 Wind Farm which is invested by China Wind Power ("CWP"). This deal is remarkable as it is IFC's first wind power project financing in China.

• Advised Genting Hong Kong Limited in relation to its term loan and revolving credit facility of US$600 million, which is secured by its eight-vessel Asian fleet.

• Advised China New Town Development Company Limited in relation to its second primary listing of all its shares by way of introduction on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. China New Town Development Company Limited is the first BVI company listed on both the SEHK and Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited as well as one of the first BVI companies listed on the SEHK.

• Advised Wisdom Marine Lines Co., Limited in relation to its listing on the GreTai Securities Market in Taiwan, involving the application of 220 million shares of the Company with proceeds of NT$220 million. This is the first Cayman company listed on the GreTai Securities Market in Taiwan.

• Advised PCD Stores (Group) Limited in relation to its global offering of 1.5 billion shares of the Company and listing of its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with proceeds of US$3 billion.

• Advised COSTIN New Materials Group Limited in relation to its global offering and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The proceeds from the global offering amounted to HK$441.5 million.

• Advised Sino-Forest Corporation on its US$300 million deal involving thirty-four of its BVI and Cayman subsidiaries which provided guarantees and other security for the obligations of the company under its 2004 Senior Notes and the Exchange Notes issuances.

• Banking & Asset Finance 
• Mutual Funds
• Public & Private Offerings of Debt & Equity
• Reconstructions & Reorganisations
• Telecommunications & Technology