John Hartley heads the Asia Banking, Capital Markets & Restructuring practice at White & Case. He is also the Executive Partner of the Hong Kong office.

He moved from London to Hong Kong in 1990 and was a partner at two major UK-based international law firms before joining White & Case. John has been involved in almost all aspects of debt finance ranging from plain vanilla syndicated lendings to tax driven structures, leveraged acquisitions, securitization, real estate finance and capital markets. He has been responsible for the structuring, negotiation and documentation of a number of significant ground breaking deals in Asia.

Among the leading financial institutions John has represented are HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Calyon, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Bank of China and Barclays Bank.

Representative transactions include advising:

• A group of 14 banks supporting the US$460 million refinancing for the Aricent Group. The financing involves the refinancing of the loan facilities relating to the Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR)-led buyout of the Aricent Group in 2006. The 2006 financing was refinanced by a new US$75 million revolving credit facilities and US$385 million term loan facilities. The bank group includes Bank of America, N.A.; BNP Paribas, Singapore Branch; Citibank, N.A.; Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd., Hong Kong Branch; Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc.; Standard Chartered Bank New York; UBS AG Hong Kong Branch; Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank; Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation; Natixis; General Electric Capital Corporation; Nomura International (Hong Kong) Limited; Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC; and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
• The lenders in a JPY 165 billion (approximately US$2 billion) syndicated bank loan to eAccess Ltd., the Japanese internet service provider and parent of a mobile data company, eMobile Ltd. This transaction is the first in the Japanese market to combine a syndicated loan with a simultaneous high yield bond, and also the first major syndicated telecommunications financing in Japan since the global financial crisis. The mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners for the syndicated facility were Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Tokyo Branch, ING Bank N.V., Tokyo Branch, Mizuho Bank Ltd., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Aozora Bank, Ltd. and UBS AG, Tokyo Branch.
• Deutsche Bank AG, Hong Kong Branch in a US$260 million pre-IPO financing, comprised of a term loan plus warrants, to Karvin Limited. Proceeds of the financing will be used for Karvin Limited to expand its aluminum manufacturing capabilities in China. We also advised DB Trustees as agent's counsel in this transaction.
• Deutsche Bank, Hong Kong Branch, Macquarie Capital (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., UBS AG, Hong Kong Branch and DBS Bank Limited, as joint mandated lead arrangers and joint mandated bookrunners in a US$75 million acquisition financing provided to MMI Precision Technologies Limited for its acquisition of Intri-Plex Technologies, Inc.
• Hong Kong-based Pacific Century Group in its US$500 million acquisition of AIG's investment advisory and asset management business – PineBridge Investments.
• Deutsche Bank AG, GE Commercial Finance, ING Bank, Morgan Stanley and DBS as mandated lead arrangers in the provision of debt financing of approximately US$280 million to Latch Holding (Labuan) Limited, a company formed at the direction of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to acquire Unisteel Technology Limited, a Singapore-listed maker of disk-drive components, for approximately US$578 million thus deal was awarded "Best Leveraged Financing" and "Best Private Equity Buyout" by Finance Asia. It also won "Asia Pacific Leveraged Deal of the Year" at Euroweek Asia's Syndicated Loans and Leveraged Finance Awards 2008.
• SoftBank, a leading Japanese technology and investment company, on the acquisition of Vodafone's Japanese telephony operations, Vodafone K.K., for ¥1,800 billion including all financing aspects. This was the largest leveraged buyout in Asia in 2006 and one of the few in the Japanese market. John also advised SoftBank on its landmark refinancing of the record-breaking leveraged buy out of Vodafone Group PLC's Japanese business, with the securitization package of ¥1,441.9 billion, the world's largest whole-business securitization. These deals won "Japan Deal of the Year", "Securitisation Deal of the Year" and "M&A Deal of the Year" at the Japan Asian Legal Business Awards in 2007; Finance Asia's "M&A Deal of the Year", "Securitisation Deal of the Year" and "Best Deal of the Year" in 2007; Euromoney's "Japan LBO of the Year 2007"; IFLR "M&A Deal of the Year 2007"; and were also recognized by Acquisition Finance and Asian Counsel magazines as "Deal of the Year."
• PCCW Ltd in its self-arranged HK$16 billion equivalent refinancing. The loan, which is made to Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Ltd and guaranteed by HKT Group Holdings Ltd, comprises a HK$8 billion revolving credit, a HK$3 billion term loan and a HK$5 billion term loan.
• Pacific Century Group (PCG) in a dual-tranche, dual currency, three year loan to its property development arm, Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited (PCPD). The financing to PCPD comprises an offshore HK$2.8 billion secured facility syndicated to six banks and an onshore RMB10 million bilateral secured facility.
• A bank in relation to a quasi commercial property securitization in Hong Kong. The financing comprised of both a bank loan and a liquidity facility.
• A large number of property related financings for investment funds relating to property in Hong Kong and the PRC.
• The four-bank underwriting syndicate banks (HSBC, Bank of China, Barclays and BNP) on the US$12 billion acquisition financing loan for Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited (PCCW) to finance its takeover of Cable & Wireless HKT Limited. This deal won IFLR "M&A Deal of the Year" and FinanceAsia "Deal of the Year/Best Syndicated Loan".
• Tokyo Mitsubishi International (HK) (now Mitsubishi Securities) on the HK$600 million credit card receivables securitisation for AEON Credit Service (Asia), the first credit card receivables-backed securitisation in Hong Kong since 1999. This securitisation was S&P rated.
• Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (SCB) on its exposure to EganaGoldfeil Holdings Limited and its group companies in Hong Kong and Germany (including Salamander Gmbh).

John is recognized as a leading practitioner in his field and has been listed in "Asia Pacific Legal 500" as a leading lawyer for Banking and Finance, Structured Finance and Securitisation; "AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers" as an expert in the Banking and Project Finance practices; "PLC Which Lawyer?" as a recommended/leading lawyer; "Who's Who in the Law"; "Chambers Global" 2003 to 2008; "Euromoney Guide to the World's Leading Banking Lawyers"; "IFLR 1000" 2005 through 2010; IFLR's "Guide to the World's Leading Project Finance Lawyers"; the Asia Law "Guide to Leading Business Lawyers" and "The International Who's Who of Professionals".

Bars and Courts
Solicitor of the High Court of Hong Kong, 1990
Solicitor of England and Wales, 1989

Education
Lancaster Gate Law School, 1987
LLB, (Hons), Leeds University, 1986

Professional Associations and Memberships
Asia Pacific Loan Market Association Documentation Committee
Asia Pacific Loan Market Association China Working Group
Asia Pacific Loan Market Association RMB Working Group
British Chamber of Commerce
Law Society of Hong Kong
Law Society of England and Wales

Languages
English
Cantonese

Citizenship
United Kingdom