Phoebe Cheng

Biography

Languages - English, Cantonese, Mandarin
Jurisdiction - Hong Kong

Phoebe Cheng is an associate in the Maritime, Trade and Offshore team at our Hong Kong office, specialising in general banking and international trade finance. She acts for a diverse range of clients, including financial institutions, trading houses, suppliers, buyers, investment funds, fintech companies and credit insurance companies on general banking transactions and trade finance matters.

Phoebe provides comprehensive legal support on corporate lending transactions, including drafting and negotiating facility and security documents in secured and unsecured syndicated and bilateral loan transactions and cross-border loan transactions, where she has acted in significant transactions such as an HKD90,000,000,000 cross-border onshore guarantee and offshore loan transaction involving a PRC borrower and an USD36,000,000 cross-border syndicated facility transactions involving a Vietnamese borrower.

She also advises on letters of credit transactions, commodities and structured trade, open accounts finance and trade-based anti-money laundering issues, where she has acted in major matters such as an HKD4,200,000,000 receivables purchase transaction and an USD200,000,000 master payment undertaking arrangements in a commodity transaction involving UAE, India and Singapore entities. She also assisted credit insurers to draft export credit guarantees and various related documents against exporters' pre- and post-shipment non-payment and insolvency risks which are not covered by credit insurances.

All the above work showcases Phoebe's extensive experience in banking matters and her continued strength in trade finance and relevant export credit insurance considerations. Her clients appreciate her ability to combine technical legal knowledge with a practical and commercial approach, taking into account each client's unique business needs and helping them achieve their commercial objectives in an efficient manner.

Experience

Receivables purchase transaction involving land resumption compensation
Assisted the client with the structuring and documentation of the receivables purchase facility of up to HKD4,200,000,000, the related receivable servicing transaction and security package.
Master payment undertaking arrangements in a commodity transaction
Assisted the client with the structuring and documentation of a USD200,000,000 advance payment and supply arrangement for a new term contract in respect of gasoline purchase and the reviewing of a crude supply agreement in respect of certain supplies of equity crude.
Cross-border onshore guarantee and offshore loan transaction
Acted for the client on an HKD90,000,000,000 PRC onshore guarantee and offshore loan, and assisted the client with the structuring and documentation of the facility and security documents.

Preparation of export financing application forms to reflect the cross-currency letter of credit negotiation terms
Assisted the client with the structuring and documentation of certain export financing application forms to reflect the cross-currency letter of credit negotiation terms, under which the client will negotiate RMB-denominated export usance letters of credit and pay the negotiation proceeds in USD, which also covered a synthetic foreign exchange swap for the financing amount, a deliverable forward for the interest amount and a separate deliverable forward for the customer to hedge the foreign exchange risks, as well as the design and documentation of the relevant security package.
Advice on export credit guarantee and trade comprehensive policy for a credit insurer
Assisted an insurer with the drafting an export credit guarantee and various related documents against exporters' pre- and post-shipment non-payment and insolvency risks which are not covered by credit insurances and the documentation of a trade comprehensive policy targeted at Hong Kong traders which import goods from online platforms.
Preparation of procedural guidelines and red flag lists for a trader in respect of the handling of trading under letters of credit and back-to-back letters of credit structures, with respect to UCP 600
Assisted the client which carries on commodities futures and derivatives business with the preparation of a set of procedural guidelines on how a trader should handle trading under letters of credit in general and back-to-back letters of credit structures, with respect to UCP 600 and a list of red flags and commonly seen scenarios which may trigger money laundering, sanctions and fraud concerns for a trader in a trade transaction.
Cross-border syndicated facility transaction
Assisted the client in structuring and documenting a syndicated offshore loan from Taiwanese syndicate lenders and a syndicated onshore loan from the Vietnamese branches of the Taiwanese syndicate lenders to a Vietnamese borrower of up to USD36,000,000, and the structuring of the security documents so that any surplus proceeds upon disposal of the mortgaged property on enforcement may be used to repay the offshore loan after repayment of the onshore loan.
Undisclosed receivables purchase transaction involving receivables arising from the sale and purchase of crude oil
Assisted the client with documenting and negotiating a bespoke Hong Kong law-governed receivables purchase structure for purchasing receivables of up to USD42,000,000, which also involved the payment of receivables into another cash flow management bank, to be held on trust for the client's benefit.
Loan transactions to a Hong Kong subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned enterprise
Advised three different banks on: (1) a bilateral term loan facility; (2) a syndicated term loan facility; and (3) a bilateral revolving loan facility of up to HKD1,600,000,000 respectively to be made available to a Hong Kong subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned financial and insurance company, for its general corporate funding requirements, including but not limited to replacement of its existing banking facilities, refinancing or payment of its existing indebtedness and/or any financing requirements of the group.
Legal opinion matters

Often asked by foreign law firms (who are not qualified to practice HK and/or English law) to assist them with the HK law aspects of a financing transaction for which they are lead counsel, including : (1) reviewing and opining on the enforceability of foreign-law governed documents against a HK-incorporated entity; (2) reviewing and opining on HK law governed documents drafted by lead counsel; (3) drafting and opining on HK law governed documents; (4) advising, preparing and opining on, a HK law governed security package or security provided by a HK-incorporated company.

Biography

Experience

EXPERTISE

Finance

Trade & Commodities Finance

Trade & Commodities Disputes

Fintech

Asset Based Lending & Speciality Finance

NEWS AND INSIGHTS

Structured letters of credit - Considerations for traders and trade finance banks

Structured letters of credit - Considerations for traders and trade finance banks