Director

CORPORATE AND FINANCE

About Benjamin

Benjamin graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2002 and is an Associate Director with Drew & Napier LLC. He is a member of the Corporate & Finance Department as well as the Biomedical Life Sciences Practice Group. Practical Law Company’s Which lawyer? also recommends him for “Life Sciences: Corporate & Commercial”.

Benjamin’s areas of practice range from corporate and finance to insolvency and restructuring work, involving both private and public listed entities. He also regularly advises numerous companies in the technology, biotechnology, health and pharmaceutical industries on a range of corporate, regulatory, and employment issues in Singapore, including advising on Traditional Chinese Medicine regulations and advertisement laws and regulations, reviewing and drafting clinical trial agreements, research and development agreements, licensing agreements and franchise agreements and advising on all aspects of employments matters, including employment agreements, secondment arrangements, and termination of employees.

Areas of Practice

Benjamin’s areas of practice range from corporate and finance to insolvency and restructuring work, involving both private and public listed entities. He also regularly advises numerous companies in the biotechnology, health and pharmaceutical industries on a range of corporate, regulatory, and employment issues in Singapore, including advising on advertisement laws and regulations, clinical trial agreements, research and development agreements, employee secondment arrangements, and termination of employees, and carrying out legal due diligence on a foreign hospital and medical centre.

Experience

Benjamin has assisted in a number of matters. Some of the matters in which Benjamin has handled include:

Corporate and Finance

• Acting for OCBC Bank, as lead and coordinating counsel in connection with its acquisition of the Asian private banking business of ING for US$1.463 billion (Asian-Counsel October 2009 Deal of the Month)
• Acting for the independent directors of SSH Corporation Limited to privatize SSH Corporation Limited by way of a proposed inter-conditional schemes of arrangement (involving two other Singapore-listed companies)
• Acting as lead counsel to a purchaser in relation to loan facilities amounting to US$88 million for the construction of a landmark undersea submarine fibre optic cable system between, inter alia, Singapore and Indonesia
• Acting as Singapore law counsel to DBS Bank, the mandated lead arranger, underwriter and financial adviser, to the Marina Bay District Cooling project financed at S$140 million (US$95 million). District cooling is an innovative urban utility service that draws chilled water from a central source, piped to multiple buildings, for air-conditioning purposes

Technology and Life Sciences

• Advising an international pharmaceutical company in relation to its clinical trial agreements in Singapore
• Advising a listed traditional Chinese medicine company in a research collaboration project with Nanyang Polytechnic on the research and development of red yeast rice products
• Acting for a leading global Contract Research Organisation in a proposed acquisition of a local central laboratory
• Carrying out legal due diligence on a foreign hospital and medical centre
• Acting for the majority shareholders of a biotechnology start-up company in a shareholders’ dispute over the licensing of intellectual property rights in certain stem-cell research and technology

Insolvency and Restructuring

• Acting for the judicial managers of Zhongguo Jilong Limited in respect of a scheme of arrangement with its shareholders, creditors and Changjiang Fertilizer Holdings Limited, resulting in the simultaneous de-listing of Zhongguo Jilong Limited and listing of Changjiang Fertilizer H0oldings Limited
• Acting for the receivers and managers of Bintan Lagoon Resort Limited in relation to its receivership, including the sale of its main asset, the Bintan Lagoon Resort overseas hotel and golf resort on Bintan Island, Indonesia

Articles by Benjamin

Appointments / Memberships