MoFo Won “Investment Funds Law Firm of the Year” award at ALB’s 2023 Hong Kong Law Awards

Morrison Foerster’s Private Funds team has won the “Investment Funds Law Firm of the Year” award at the Asian Legal Business (ALB) 2023 Hong Kong Law Awards, out of 13 shortlisted law firms. The awards pay tribute to the outstanding performance of private practitioners and in-house teams in Hong Kong and around the Asia Pacific region. Winners were announced at the award ceremony in Hong Kong on September 15, 2023.

Led by Serena Tan, deputy co‑chair of the firm’s Private Funds Group and chair of the Greater China Private Funds Group, our Private Funds practice is widely recognized by fund sponsors and institutional investors as a leading practice in Asia and globally. Focusing on both private equity and real estate fund formation, we are one of only a handful of law firms in Asia that offer one-stop shop services for all aspects of a fund’s life cycle. We also have a tax team based in HK that provides U.S. and international tax advice and a regulatory team based in HK that provides SFC related regulatory advice, which are rare advantages in Asia. All of our China team members are bilingual and can provide real-time, in-depth advice in both Mandarin and English.

Our diverse practice also encompasses advising on fund secondary transactions such as GP‑led secondaries, GP-led restructuring, continuation funds, stapled secondaries, and secondary purchases of limited partner interests. Serena will be moderating the “GP-Led Secondaries: There’s Room to Grow” panel at SuperReturn Asia 2023 conference on 21 September.

Our private equity fund manager clients include Affirma Capital, Ally Bridge Group, Ascendent Capital Partners, CBC Group, Fosun, GLP, Hony Capital, Junson Capital, KHL Capital, Kowloon Nights, Makers, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, ORIX Asia Capital, Ping An Overseas Holdings, Sailing Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, and Taiwania Capital. Our real estate fund manager clients include BHG, GLP, Hony Capital, and Sino-Ocean Capital.

Some of our recent representative matters include advising:

• MSPEA, Morgan Stanley’s private equity investment arm, on the formation and ongoing operations of a PRC-domiciled, RMB-denominated private investment fund focused on investments in China (“Fund III”).
• A leading PRC-based real estate fund manager, , on the formation of a US$1.4 billion equity fund and a US$600 million credit fund to invest in residential or residential-anchored real estate in China.
• A leading Asia-based venture capital firm in formation of a continuation fund, which was structured as a stapled secondary.

Since 2018, our Investment Funds team led by Serena Tan, Hong Kong partner and deputy co‑chair of the firm’s Private Funds Group, has been nominated five times as “Investment Funds Law Firm of the Year.”

The team has also been recognized with other prominent rankings and awards such as:

• Chambers & Partners 2019‒2023: Ranked as a Band 2 Law Firm for Investment Funds: Private Equity in the Asia Pacific region from 2022 and Serena Tan is ranked as a Band 2 Investment Funds partner in Greater China
• Global PERE Awards 2018, 2020‒2021: Shortlisted for “Asia Law Firm of the Year” for both Fund Formation and Transactions The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2017‒2023: Ranked as a leading law firm for Investment Funds in China (2019‒2023) and Hong Kong (2017‒2023)
• IFLR1000 2020‒2023: Ranked as a leading law firm for Private equity funds in Hong Kong and China

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