Catherine Miao is the Head Partner of JunHe LLP’s Special Situations Investment Practice and brings over 30 years of experience in high-value, cross-border legal matters. Prior to joining JunHe in 2011, she had practiced for 15 years at a leading law firm in South China, where she served as founding partner, managing partner, and chief partner.
Catherine is widely recognized as a pioneer in China’s special situations and distressed asset market. She has advised financial asset management companies since the inception of China’s four major AMCs in 1999. She provides long-term and project-based counsel on NPL acquisitions and disposals, debt restructurings, debt-for-asset swaps, judicial auctions, reorganizations, and distressed real estate revitalization. She frequently advises on investment, financing, and common-benefit loans in listed company bankruptcy reorganizations. She also acts for international special situations and alternative investment funds—including Bain Capital, Oaktree, Blackstone, CDH, Cerberus, and Itochu—on distressed M&A and asset transactions in China. Her landmark deals include China’s first foreign-funded NPL disposal, the first outright NPL acquisition by a foreign fund, formation of foreign-invested AMCs, and the launch of RMB and QFLP special situations funds. The total face value of her distressed deals exceeds several hundred billion RMB.
Catherine’s corporate and M&A practice is another cornerstone of her work. She regularly advises Fortune 500 multinationals, financial institutions, private equity funds, and Chinese state-owned and private enterprises on inbound and outbound investments, greenfield projects, joint ventures, mergers, equity and asset acquisitions, corporate restructurings, capital increases and reductions, and company liquidation. She also supported Chinese companies in establishing overseas trade zone and foreign subsidiaries, and acquiring offshore targets. Her sector experience spans financial and quasi-financial services (including trusts, securities, leasing, and asset management), energy (oil, petrochemicals, and power), fast-moving consumer goods, direct selling, automotive and electronic components, exhibitions, and real estate.
In the real estate sector, Catherine has led more than 100 property acquisition transactions involving residential, commercial, hospitality, cultural-tourism, and property management assets. She advised on the acquisition of a controlling interest in an A-share listed real estate company. She is experienced in urban renewal, land compensation, land swaps, factory relocations, TOD, and property management matters. She also regularly advises on real estate financing (including bank loans and mezzanine structures) as well as real estate acquisitions through NPL deals, judicial auctions, and restructurings of distressed developments. She currently serves as counsel to Swire Properties on the Taikoo Li Guangzhou Julongwan project.
Catherine has received numerous honors, including ALB China’s Top 15 Female Lawyers and Top 15 M&A Lawyers. She is ranked in Chambers Greater China Region for Corporate/Commercial: Eastern Coast (Guangdong), and recommended by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific for Restructuring and Insolvency, Real Estate and Construction, and Banking and Finance. She is also listed in China Business Law Journal’s A-List of Elite Lawyers, and serves as an expert advisor to the Guangzhou Municipal Board for International Investment.
Catherine received her Bachelor of Laws at Fudan University and her Master of Laws at Sun Yat-sen University. She also received her Common Professional Examination/ Postgraduate Diploma in Law at The University of Law (UK) and her Postgraduate Certificate in Laws at the University of Hong Kong.
Catherine is qualified to practice law in mainland China and Hong Kong SAR.
Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese)and English