Drew & Napier - Partners' Profiles

Boon Ann is the Deputy Managing Director of Drew & Napier's Corporate and Finance Department. He began private practice in 1987. He spent some time in academia as a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, before returning to private practice in 1992 when he joined Drew & Napier. He was a Partner from 1994 to 2001 and became a director upon the corporatisation of Drew & Napier.

Boon Ann has been recommended as a leading individual for five consecutive years by The Asia Pacific Legal 500 in the area of capital markets. The Asia Pacific Legal 500 2007/2008 describes him as “an active figure in a practice which leverages off expertise in disputes, finance and corporate.” He was also recommended in the 2005/2006 edition of the same publication for domestic and international matters relating to corporate and mergers and acquisitions work.

Areas of Practice

Boon Ann practises mainly in the areas of Corporate Finance, Cross-Border Investments, Mergers and Acquisitions, as well as Banking and Finance.

Experience

Boon Ann has extensive experience in corporate finance transactions. His work includes acting as counsel in relation to initial public offerings of securities as well as mergers and acquisitions including reverse takeovers. Boon Ann acted as counsel in approximately a quarter of initial public offerings in Singapore in 2009 (7 out of 28 initial public offerings). He also acts as counsel to listed companies on secondary equity offerings, debt offerings as well as advises on regulatory compliance. He has actively advised on info-communication matters, and has acted as counsel to banks on a number of loan transactions.

Boon Ann was formerly a member of the Legal Panel on Convergence Issues Committee established by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

Boon Ann was also a member of the Company Legislation and Regulatory Framework Committee ("CLRFC") appointed by the Ministry of Finance, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Monetary

Authority of Singapore in December 1999. The CLRFC was tasked "to undertake a comprehensive and coherent review of our company law and regulatory framework and recommend a modern company law and regulatory framework for Singapore which accords with global standards and which will promote a competitive economy". The CLRFC presented its final report to the Singapore government in October 2002.

Representative Transactions

Some matters that Boon Ann has handled include:

Acting for Eng Wah Organization Limited in relation to its S$675.0 million reverse takeover by Transcu Ltd.; this transaction was a nominee for "Equity Market Deal of the Year" in the BMW Asian Legal Business South East Asia Law Awards 2009;
Acting for Eng Wah Organization Limited in relation to the disposal of its business and property assets for S$113.0 million;
Acting for Healthway Medical Corporation Limited in its S$48.8 million initial public offering and listing, one of the first Catalist listings in Singapore in 2008;
Acting for an issuer, Lucky Condotel Limited, and its guarantor, Lucky Square Pte. Ltd., in relation to the issuance and listing on The Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited of S$105.0 million secured fixed rate notes and S$105.0 million secured floating rate notes, both due on 31 August 2011;
Acting for Seatown Corporation Ltd (in Judicial Management) in its S$83.6 million Scheme of Arrangement;
Acting for Asia-Pacific Strategic Investments Limited in its listing by introduction pursuant to Seatown Corporation Ltd’s (in Judicial Management) S$83.6 million Scheme of Arrangement;
Advising Connect Holdings Limited in its US$96.2 million (approx) tender offer for Pacific Internet Limited, a Singapore incorporated company listed on NASDAQ;
Advising an American gaming company in its proposed bid for the Sentosa Integrated Resorts mega-project in Singapore;
Acting for Sarin Technologies Ltd in its S$22.1 million initial public offering and listing, the first Israeli company to be listed in Singapore in 2005;
Acting for Petra Foods Limited in its S$156.0 million initial public offering and listing; this transaction was nominated by Asian Legal Business as the Cross-border Equity Deal of the Year for 2004;
Acting for the issuer managers in the offering and listing of US$1 billion Upper Tier 2 subordinated bonds issued by a major Singapore bank;
Acting for the issuer in the offering and listing of notes issued pursuant to a US$500 million medium term note programme issued by a major Singapore government-linked corporation.