2019.06.12
The Sixth International Public AMC Forum was held on May 27 and 28 in Hanoi, Vietnam. A number of state-owned asset management companies attended the forum, alongside state-owned distressed asset investment organizations from the Asia-Pacific region. The Vietnam Ministry of Finance and many international experts and scholars also attended. Ms. MIAO, Qinghui (Catherine), partner of JunHe, was invited by the Asian Development Bank to attend the forum and gave the keynote speech, as the only invited PRC legal expert.
IPAF was officially launched on 27 May 2013 on the initiative of the Asian Development Bank. The founding members were seven state-owned asset management companies from China, Kazakhstan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, and included China Cinda, China Great Wall and China Huarong. The members of IPAF are all state-owned asset management companies or organizations from a number of Asian countries, focused on distressed asset solutions. They include China Cinda, China Great Wall, China Huarong, China Orient, Zheshang Assets, Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), Vietnam Asset Management Corporation (VAMC), Vietnam's Debt & Asset Trading Corporation (VDATC), Perbadanan Insurance Deposit Malaysia (PIDM), Sukhumvit Asset Management Co., Ltd. (SAM), Deposit Protection Agency (DPA), and the joint stock company ‘Fund of Problem Loans’ of Kazakhstan. The forum aims to promote business cooperation and communication among the state-owned asset management companies of the various countries, through sharing knowledge and development cooperation.
A two-day in-depth discussion on the topic of “Strengthening regional financial stability through effective legal and operational frameworks for NPLs resolution” was a highlight of the forum. On the topic of ‘legal and operational frameworks for the development of NPL markets in Asia’, Ms. Miao, a legal expert with vast experience in the area, gave the attendees a detailed analysis of the historical developments and legal environments of PRC NPLs resolutions. She also spoke on the possible legal structures of NPL cross border transactions, the relevant legal issues regarding foreign investors investing in PRC NPLs, and the legal procedures of debt collection. Ms. Miao later gave a brief introduction to Indian Insolvency and the Bankruptcy Code 2016. Considering that India has attracted a large number of international investors after the enactment of new insolvency and bankruptcy codes in 2016, and its NPLs investment market is still very popular, this topic proved to be very timely.
Ms. Miao began to practice PRC law in 1995 and became a Hong Kong lawyer in 2005. She has accumulated vast experience in areas such as special opportunity investments, banking and finance, mezzanine financing, real estate, foreign investment, enterprise M&A and restructuring. Ms. Miao is particularly adept at dealing with complicated and difficult non-litigation matters and has participated in many innovative legal matters without precedent in the PRC. She has solid theoretical knowledge and vast practical experience, and is ranked in the corporate/commercial area of Chambers Asia-Pacific 2019, as a recognised practitioner, and an authoritative legal valuator. She is also named as a recommended lawyer in the banking and finance area in the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2019. . On 20th March 2019, Ms. Miao was selected as one of ALB China’s 2019 top 15 M&A lawyers.
In the area of alternative opportunity investment, Ms. Miao has been engaged by one of the Big Four as its annual retainer, and has handled a great number of innovative and complicated projects for this AMC for over 20 years. This includes the first project of disposing of NPLs with foreign investment in the PRC. The General Counsel of this AMC spoke highly of Ms. Miao as follows: “Ms. Miao was one of the first legal service providers in the market of non-performing assets in China. She led the team that invented the ‘Invitation to Offer Model’ for the disposal of non-performing assets, which solved the procedural problems for financial asset management companies in the public disposition of non-performing assets and was eventually adopted by the Chinese regulatory authority as one of the statutory models for disposing non-performing assets. While bringing in foreign investors in the non-performing assets market in China, Ms. Miao pioneered implementing structured transactions to resolve the various legal and commercial issues faced by the parties in cross-border transactions. Such models have effectively boosted activities in the secondary market for non-performing assets, as well as the cross-border market. Ms. Miao and her team have since participated vigorously in numerous packaged sales of non-performing loans, demonstrating profound understanding and solutions for legal issues in the market of transfers of non-performing assets. After joining JunHe, Ms. Miao has been active in the market of alternative investments. She has insightful and in-depth opinions on the legal issues in the industry of financial asset management in China.” Ms. Miao has also provided legal services to many renowned international investment banks engaged in alternative opportunity investments, including Oaktree, Bain Capital and Blackstone. Ms. Miao has earned the trust of her clients with her outstanding professional legal service.
