Lesley Peng is a Partner in Simpson Thacher’s Corporate Department. Lesley’s practice focuses on corporate finance and general corporate matters, and she has represented both issuers and underwriters in initial public offerings, high yield and investment grade debt financings, convertible debt offerings, preferred stock offerings and other public and private corporate finance transactions.
Lesley’s practice includes initial public offerings and a broad range of equity and debt securities offerings for financial institutions. She advised the underwriters in the IPO of Opus Bank in April 2014, in the IPO of Capital Bank Financial Corp in September 2012, in the IPO of EverBank Financial Corp in May 2012 and in the IPO of First Interstate BancSystem in March 2010, which was the first IPO of a financial institution since the financial crisis. Her IPO experience also includes representing Patriot National on its IPO in January 2015 and The Blackstone Group on its $4.8 billion initial public offering in June 2007. Lesley regularly advises JPMorgan Chase in its capital markets transactions, including in its $5.8 billion common stock offering to repay its TARP preferred stock in June 2009, as well as numerous preferred stock and senior and subordinated debt issuances. She has also represented AXIS Capital Holdings in a number of preferred stock and senior debt issuances. She has acted as counsel to the underwriters in many other debt and equity financing transactions for banks, thrifts, insurance companies and other financial services companies, including Artisan Partners Asset Management, Cullen/Frost Bankers, First Horizon, Reinsurance Group of America, Symetra Financial, TCF Financial and Texas Capital.
Lesley has also advised on numerous capital markets transactions in the transportation and energy industries, including common and preferred stock, baby bond and secured and unsecured high yield offerings. She represented the underwriters in the concurrent $800 million IPO and $500 million high yield offering for Swift Transportation in December 2010, and Stena’s $600 million unsecured high yield offering and $350 million secured high yield offering in January and February 2014 and Nordic American Offshore's IPO in June 2014. She has been involved in numerous other transactions in those industries, including transactions for Concho Resources, Diana Shipping, EXCO Resources, Frontline, Nordic American Tankers and Star Bulk Carriers.
Lesley frequently represents investment banking firms in secured and unsecured high yield offerings, including issuances by Endo Pharmaceuticals, Neff, VeriSign and ViaSat. She regularly represents major investment banking firms, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman, Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank and Wells Fargo Securities, in debt and equity capital markets transactions for a variety of issuers.
Lesley joined Simpson Thacher in 1999 and became a partner in 2008. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, magna cum laude in 1996 and her J.D. from Harvard University in 1999. She is admitted to practice in New York.