In this landmark Deals of the Year Issue, we credit last year's most complex, large, unique and innovative deals. Recently implemented laws led to both Hong Kong and West Africa's inaugural sukuks, soon-to-be implemented integration in the ASEAN region led to gigantic deals and both China and the UAE witnessed their largest ever IPOs, with China's valued at an immense, world record-breaking US$25 billion.
Our landmark 8th annual Representing Corporate Asia & Middle East Survey Special Report, the largest and most objective of its kind across Asia and the Middle East, contains the views of in-house counsel as they give their input on, amongst other things, the areas of most concern to them in fulfilling their role in their own jurisdiction, as well as a full rundown of the law firms which have made the strongest and most positive impressions on the In-House Community over the past 12 months, our Firms of the Year, 2014.
In this landmark Deals of the Year Issue, you will find an overview of the winning deals, which won acclaim for a combination of reasons including uniqueness, complexity, size and innovation. Our final run-down includes: historic aircraft orders, inaugural sukuks, ground-breaking project financing deals, and a multitude of capital market deals, as well as many others. Despite a relatively restrained backdrop in 2013, activity rallied in the final quarter of last year and certain sectors flourished – particularly in the project finance, energy and food and beverage (F&B) sectors.
Based solely on the votes of members of our In-House Community, we are pleased to present the winners of our External Counsel of the Year accolade. In-House counsel from around the region were asked, as part of ASIAN-MENA COUNSEL’s annual Representing Corporate Asia and Middle East Survey 2013, to name who they believed to be the outstanding external counsel in their jurisdiction, and why. Broken down by jurisdiction, below you will find a roll-call of over 60 private practitioners who won the particular acclaim of our In-House Community together with client testimonials. External counsel who received an overwhelming number of votes and plaudits, have been singled out as In-House Community External Counsel of Distinction. Congratulations to all those recognised below.
In our landmark ASIAN-MENA COUNSEL Deals of the Year report, we are delighted to bring you a comprehensive overview of our winners from 2012. A varied constellation of deals made it onto our shortlist this year and these consisted of some heavy-hitting M&A transactions, impressive energy projects, titanic IPO’s and various Islamic finance deals.
The relationship forged between in-house counsel and their external counterparts is a strong one, and in many cases can determine the volume of work directed their way. From our Representing Corporate Asia & Middle East Survey 2011, we have mined in-house counsel’s votes to reveal the winners of ASIAN-MENA COUNSEL’s External Counsel of the Year accolade.