White & Case LLP - Lawyers

Practice Experience

John Hartley heads the Asia Bank Finance and Restructuring Practice and is one of Hong Kong's leading finance lawyers. He joined White & Case in April 2008 from another leading international law firm. John has been in Hong Kong since 1990 and has experience of cutting edge transactions and complex cross border financings, many of which were market "firsts". He has represented leading banks across the full range of banking products, including acquisition finance, capital markets, loan syndications, project finance, restructurings and workouts, and securitisations.

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:

Deutsche Bank, GE Commercial Finance, ING Bank, Morgan Stanley and DBS as mandated lead arrangers in connection with 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;
SoftBank, a leading Japanese technology and investment company, on the acquisition of Vodafone Group PLC's Japanese mobile phone unit (Vodafone KK) for ¥1,800 billion including all financing aspects. This was the largest leveraged buyout in Asia to date. John subsequently advised SoftBank on its landmark refinancing utilising the world's largest whole-business securitisation package of ¥1,449.1 billion;
A listed company on the financing for its acquisition of controlling a stake in a gas and power project in Indonesia and on the subsequent refinancing and expansion facility;
Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. on the financing for Affinity Equity Partners' acquisition and privatisation of First Engineering Limited by way of a general offer in Singapore and on the subsequent term refinancing involving senior and mezzanine debt;
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". John has acted for the lenders on every subsequent raising of bank debt financing by PCCW;
Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of China on the HK$1.8 billion financing for New World's acquisition of Citybus from Stagecoach; and
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.

John is regularly recognized as a leading lawyer by various independent legal publications:

"(John Hartley) is a banking specialist with extensive experience in complex cross-border transactions and a respected reputation for conducting many market firsts."- IFLR1000 2009
"(John Hartley) is one guy who is very hands-on and he always knows the case progress in terms of what options are still available. I would trust him with anything we're working on."- IFLR1000 2009
Chambers Global 2008: Leading Lawyer China/Hong Kong Banking & Finance Foreign Band 2
Chambers Asia 2008: Leading Lawyer China Banking & Finance – Hong Kong Based Experts Band 2, and Leading Lawyer Hong Kong Banking & Finance Band 2
IFLR1000 2008: Leading Lawyer China Banking Foreign Firms and Leading Lawyer Hong Kong Banking
Asia Pacific Legal 500 2007/2008: Leading Individual Hong Kong Banking & Finance, and Leading Individual Hong Kong Structured Finance & Securitisation
Legal Media's Expert Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers: Banking Lawyers and Project Finance Lawyers

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

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

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

Languages
English
Cantonese

Citizenship
United Kingdom