Drew & Napier - Partners' Profiles

Wee Kiong has had 18 years of practice experience as a corporate finance lawyer. Prior to that, he was an investment banker with Rothschild in Singapore for five years specializing in capital markets and corporate finance transactions between 1984 to 1989. His first work experience was with the Singapore Economic Development Board in investment promotions from 1980 to 1984

Wee Kiong has been recommended as one of the leading individuals in the area of corporate and mergers & acquisitions work by The Asia Pacific Legal 500 on several occasions and was cited by the publication for “his creativity and ability to think outside the box”. Most recently, he was selected for inclusion in the Singapore edition of The Best Lawyers in America® 2009 in the field of Corporate and Private Equity. The Practical Law Company Which Lawyer?2009 edition describes him as a 'corporate finance expert, active in private equity transactional work, fund formation, M&A and capital market issues' and recommends him as a leading individual.

He started his legal career with Drew & Napier in 1989 before leaving to found his own law firm in 1996. Apart from a short stint with another leading Singapore firm, he ran his own law firm until 2007 when he returned to Drew & Napier with his team of corporate partners.

Areas of Practice

Wee Kiong’s primary area of practice is corporate finance work, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, initial public offerings and stock exchange related work, equity and market related finance, servicing venture capital and private equity funds. Wee Kiong also has experience in the formation of investment funds, project finance and other finance and banking work.

Experience

Matters that Wee Kiong has handled include:

The stock exchange listing of over 50 corporations and their initial public offerings of shares (including the first internet and the first bio-tech IPOs in Singapore).
Numerous rights issues, placement issues, bonus issues, convertible bond issues by listed companies.
Secondary listings and transfer of listings of foreign corporations to the Singapore Stock Exchange.
Mergers & acquisitions of listed and unlisted corporations in Singapore and the region.
Reverse takeover transactions of listed companies through injection of new businesses.
Privatization of listed corporations.
Restructuring and reorganization of insolvent listed companies through debt restructuring or debt composition - voluntary or through schemes of arrangement with fresh equity injection or debt conversion.
Corporate governance issues on matters, either for boards or independent directors, when facing boardroom disputes, proxy fights in general meetings, conflicts of interests, privatizations, fraud, crisis or insolvency.
Start-ups, expansion stage or mezzanine stage venture capital investments and including private equity buy-out transactions.
Advising on corporate matters such as share buy-backs, capital reduction, share consolidation, share options and share performance schemes, approval processes for major transactions and interested person transactions under the Singapore Stock Exchange listing rules.
Various forms of debt financing, bilateral or syndicated, including project financing.