Celia Lam

Celia is Of Counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s Hong Kong office and the former head of the China Practice. She has extensive experience in capital markets and mergers and acquisitions, in particular, in securities offerings and listings, public takeovers and private mergers and acquisitions for state-owned enterprises and multinational corporations. Celia has been consistently recognized as a top lawyer in capital markets by The Legal 500 Asia and Chambers. Before she joined Simpson Thacher in 2011, Celia was a Co-Managing Partner of Linklaters Greater China Region.

Celia has advised on the Hong Kong listings of PRC state-owned and private enterprises since 1993 when the first batch of H share companies were listed in Hong Kong. She has advised the issuers of the first listing by a PRC telecom company (China Mobile), a PRC oil and gas company (PetroChina), a PRC insurance company (PICC) and a PRC bank (Bank of Communications).

Celia has advised on a number of domestic and cross-border public takeovers and private M&As, including the acquisition by ICBC of a 20% stake in Standard Bank by way of a partial offer, the merger of China Unicom and China Netcom (both dual listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and NYSE), the privatization of ICBC Asia and Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) and the acquisition by China Mobile of a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and 20% in Phoenix Satellite TV.

Celia is the deputy chairman of the Hong Kong Takeovers and Mergers Panel, a member of the Takeovers Appeal Committee and one of the chairmen of the Hong Kong Listing Review Committee member.

Highlights of Celia’s experience in HKSE listings and securities offerings include representation of:

• Medlive Technology Co., Ltd. in its HK IPO

• Underwriters in the HK IPO of MicroPort CardioFlow Medtech Corporation

• Underwriters in the Hong Kong secondary listing Zai lab Ltd and the follow-on offering

• XPeng in its NYSE IPO

• Underwriters in the HK IPO of XD Inc.

• Homeland Interactive in its HK IPO

• Underwriters in the HK IPO of Impro Precision

• Ant Financial in its US$14 billion equity financing

• Underwriters in the HK IPO of Huatai Securities

• Linekong Interactive in its HK IPO

• Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable in its HK IPO

• Underwriters in the HK IPO of Tiange Interactive

• Underwriters in the HK IPO of Hengxing Gold

• Boyaa Global in its HK IPO

• Underwriters in the HK IPO of Hydoo International

• Bank of Communications in its HK$70 billion private placement

• Sole Global Coordinator in the HK IPO of Wonderful Sky Financial Group Limited (first financial public relations company to undertake a global offering and listing)

• Underwriters in the HK IPO of Hui Xian REIT (first RMB equity IPO)

• Nature Flooring in its HK IPO

• Underwriters in the IPO of L’Occitane International S.A. (first Luxembourg company listed in HK)

• China Railway Group Limited in its HK IPO and Rule 144A/Reg S Offering (first A followed by H share listing)

• Underwriters in the spin-off of New World Department Stores

• Underwriters in the HK IPO of China Merchants Bank

• Bank of Communications Co., Ltd., in its HK IPO (first PRC bank listed)

• China Netcom Group Corporation (Hong Kong) Limited in its dual HK and U.S. listings

• PICC Property and Casualty Company Limited in its HK IPO (first PRC insurance company listed)

• Underwriters in the HK listing of Standard Chartered PLC (first UK incorporated company listed in HK)

• China Mobile Limited in its dual HK and US listings (first PRC telecom company listed)

Highlights of Celia’s experience in M&A transactions include representation of:

• Blackstone on its acquisition of 75% stake in Hong Kong International Construction Investment Management Group

• Yunfeng Financial Group on its acquisition of 60% stake in MassMutual Asia

• Yunfeng Financial Holdings on its acquisition of 56% stake in Reorient Group

• Blackstone on its acquisition of 75% stake in Tysan Holdings

• Fubon Financial on its privatization of Fubon Bank (Hong Kong)

• ICBC on its privatization of ICBC Asia

• China Netcom on its merger with China Unicom

• China Netcom on its acquisition and disposal of provincial networks in 2005 and 2006

• China Mobile on its acquisitions of a 20% stake in PRC Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, a 12% stake in Taiwan Far EasTone Telecommunications, and a 20% stake in Phoenix Television

• China Mobile as offeror for the privatization of Peoples Telephone

• China Mobile on its acquisition of 28 provincial networks in 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2004 with consideration of over US$50 billion and associated equity and debt offerings

• China Mobile in the strategic investment of Vodafone and subsequent disposal in China Mobile

• China Mobile and its subsidiary, Aspire, in the strategic investments of Vodafone, Hewlett Packard and Merrill Lynch in Aspire

• ICBC on its acquisitions of a 20% stake in South Africa Standard Bank, and a 70% stake in Macau Seng Heng Bank

• UBS on its strategic investment in Bank of China

• BBVA on its strategic investment in CITIC Bank

• Acting for the offerors in the reverse takeover of China Electronics, KG NextVision, Harbor Ring International and Softbank International

Celia received her Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and her LL.B. Degree with First Class Honors from the University of Sydney. Celia is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.