News Clifford Chance advises CVC on US$105 million investment in Venturepharma Group in China Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has acted for funds advised by CVC Asia Pacific Limited on its US$105 million investment in convertible bonds issued by Venturepharma Group in China. Beijing partner Terence Foo who led the core team said, “We were delighted to partner with CVC on yet another successful investment in China. This deal highlights the strong interest by private equity in China’s healthcare and pharmaceutical sector, which is set to become one of the largest markets in the world in the coming few years.” Venturepharma is an integrated specialty pharmaceutical company that has a broad product portfolio in a number of fast growing therapeutic areas, particularly Central Nerve System (CNS) and Anti-Allergy. CVC’s investment will be used to fund the growth expansion of the Company and further strengthen its R&D, manufacturing and sales functions.
Wellness Program is the New Weapon to Combat Rising Costs of Employee Healthcare and to Improve Productivity and Performance As the number of unhealthy, high-risk employees continues to rise in Asia Pacific, employers are beginning to feel the impact of corresponding significant increases in their direct and indirect health costs. Across the region, 35% of the 899 companies that participated in a recent Mercer Marsh Benefits survey spent over 6% of their annual payroll on health benefits in 2011, with 10% of those spending in excess of 15%. Alarmingly, 59% of responding employers expect their health benefits spend to rise in 2012, and senior management is growing increasingly anxious about their employees’ health. 81% of companies reported that they are concerned about their employees’ health and worry how this may impact their ongoing success and competitiveness. The good news is that many companies in the region are looking to enhance their health programs in the next two years through an expanded use of health risk assessments (47%), and interventions including stress management (46%) and chronic disease management (43%), as indicated by survey respondents. “We’ve seen a huge spike in requests to help organisations obtain greater value from their benefits spend in 2012, with many finally acknowledge that unhealthy employee behaviours are driving their health benefits costs,” said Rosaline Chow Koo, Mercer’s Asia Pacific Employee Health and Benefits Leader for Mercer.
Jones Lang LaSalle Scoops 12 Awards at The International Property Awards Asia Pacific 2012-13 Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), the global financial and professional services firm specialising in real estate, has been honoured at the International Property Awards Asia Pacific, in association with HSBC, held in Kuala Lumpur on 27 April 2012. The firm won a total of 12 awards; the five star ‘Best Property Consultancy’ award in nine countries across the region, and highly commended awards in a further three countries. Jones Lang LaSalle secured the five star award in the following countries: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The firm was also named Highly Commended Property Consultancy in Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand.
New Appointments Clifford Chance announces five new counsel, including lateral hire for Asia Pacific
Senior New Arborist Joins aec Team
Leading international law firm Clifford Chance today announces the hire of real estate and finance specialist Keerati Kanjanawenich to our Bangkok office. He is joined by four senior lawyers who have been promoted to counsel in Asia Pacific, effective 1 May.
aec, Hong Kong’s largest independent ecological consultancy, has announced the appointment of its newest senior arborist, Mr. Anthony D. Pickering Tony.
Previously, Keerati was head of legal and compliance at Double A and National Power Supply in Bangkok. He has also worked for Linklaters, Norton Rose and in-house for Lehman Brothers and Nomura. Keerati has gained a wealth of transactional experience throughout his career and will be able to provide specialised advice on Thai law. Keerati graduated with first class honours from Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, and completed two LLMs, one from Georgetown University in 1997 and the other from New York University in 1998. The other new counsel are the following: Yusuke ABE, Counsel, Finance, Tokyo Alan GIBSON, Counsel, Corporate, Perth Kabir SINGH, Counsel, L&DR, Singapore Paul WEE Ei Don, Counsel, Finance, Beijing “I’m delighted to announce this new group of counsel for Asia Pacific,” said Peter Charlton, Clifford Chance’s Regional Managing Partner, Asia Pacific. “They all have excellent legal practice experience and will bring strong, talented leadership to their new roles.
The demand for professional arborists has been steadily growing in Hong Kong, and in response aec has invested much effort in strengthening their arboricultural talent. Tony, who has worked for 30 years in the arboricultural industry for 30 years and has been a member of the Arboricultural Association for 20 years, serving the public, private and educational sectors in the UK and US. He has worked for Europe’s largest gardeining firm and one of the largest arboriculture companies in the US. aec sought out Tony in the UK after finding a lack of adequately qualified arborists in Hong Kong.