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Aik Hui Chua
Senior Associate
Aik Hui Chua’s experience covers advising shipowners and financial institutions on financing, re-financing and lease of assets such as vessels and maritime containers, as well as the sale and purchase of newbuild and second-hand vessels. She has also advised on matters relating to trade credit financing and enforcement issues arising out of insolvency proceedings.
Aik Hui is also adept at handling transactions with cross-jurisdictional elements. She has advised clients based in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, Australia and the UK on both contentious and non-contentious matters.
Having previously worked as an in-house legal counsel at a maritime regulatory authority, Aik Hui has a strong understanding of the regulatory framework of the shipping industry.
Recently, she completed a six-month secondment at a leading international banking group in Singapore as a member of the bank’s Corporate Finance team. During her secondment, she provided various business teams with appropriate support and advice to ensure that agreements and transactions with third parties comply with the bank’s internal policies and are valid and enforceable under the laws of all relevant jurisdictions. She also assisted various deal teams in identifying and mitigating legal and other risks relating to new transactions or changes to existing ones, escalating, mitigating and resolving risks, conduct and compliance matters.
- Assisting with the sale and leaseback of three container vessels involving a PRC leasing company as buyers and lessors and a multinational container line headquartered in Germany as seller and charterer.
- Assisting with the sale and leaseback of 11 oil tankers involving a PRC leasing company as buyers and lessors and 11 single-purpose owning companies ultimately owned by a multinational commodities house as sellers and incoming charterers.
- Assisting with the sale and leaseback of one car carrier involving a state-owned PRC leasing company as buyer and lessor and a Norwegian shipowner and operator as seller and incoming charterer.
- Assisting with a secured loan facility of up to US$17 million made by the Singapore branch of a German transportation bank as lenders to a PRC state-owned shipowner.
- Assisting with the sale and release of a vessel from an existing senior/junior loan transaction and the subsequent purchase by an operator of drybulk carriers headquartered in Singapore financed by a German transportation bank.
- Assisting with the financing of a floating dock for usage under a long-term leasing arrangement made between a multinational shipowner and operator headquartered in Hong Kong as lessor and one of its subsidiaries in Thailand.
- Advising Bank of Communications Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. on the sale and leaseback of six class product/chemical tankers, 12 class crude oil carriers and four product oil tankers involving leading commodity trading and logistics house, Trafigura Pte Ltd. Of the 22 vessels, eight will be built in Korean shipyards and four will be built in Chinese shipyards. This transaction has generated publicity in the newbuilding and shipping market, as it is thought to have marked a major strategy shift by charter-focused Trafigura.
- Advising International Finance Corporation as sole investor in the US$150 million green bond issued by a Philippine-based commercial lender, China Banking Corporation.
- Advising lenders in arranging a refinancing of a US$115 million revolving facility to a multinational LPG company.
Education
- University College London, LL.M., 2011
- University College London, LL.B., 2010
Admissions
- England and Wales, 2017
- Singapore, 2014
Languages
- English
- Chinese