VILAF expands in merger with LDV Lawyers

February 28, 2013 | 11:35

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VILAF has expanded its partnership and strengthened its energy practice in a merger with LDV Lawyers, a leading energy law firm in Vietnam.

The two firms believed the merger would create the largest energy team in the country and benefit their current and future energy clients.

Luu Hoang Ha, managing partner of LDV, will become a partner at VILAF based in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ha, a recognised leading energy lawyer in Vietnam, will add to VILAF’s team of seven partners working on projects, power, oil & gas, water, infrastructure and mining. Ha is also vice chairman of the AmCham Vietnam’s Energy Committee, Vietnam director of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators and a frequent speaker on Vietnam’s energy laws and practice.

Following recent departure of finance and corporate partner Tran Anh Duc, the firm’s finance and capital market team of 14 lawyers is led by managing partner Vo Ha Duyen in Ho Chi Minh City and managing partner Tran Tuan Phong in Hanoi. Additionally, the firm last month promoted counsel Nguyen Quang Vu, an outstanding corporate and finance lawyer, to its partnership.

VILAF, one of the largest full-service business law firms in Vietnam, has 11 partners and 40 associate lawyers. The firm has been consistently ranked by independent legal publications as a first tier firm in Vietnam for corporate/M&A, energy & project, banking & finance, dispute resolution, capital market, and real property practices.

VILAF recently advised Vincom in its $300 million Singapore bond listing transaction, Standard Chartered Bank, Mizuho, Citibank, SMBC and PNB Paribas in different syndicated loans to Vietnam, KKR in its acquisition of shares in Masan Consumer in a complex chain of transactions totaling $350 million, China Southern Power Grid in Vinh Tan 1 BOT Power Project, Unicharm in its acquisition of 95 per cent of the shares in Diana, and SCG Thailand its acquisition of 85 per cent of the shares in Prime Group.

LDV is a boutique energy firm having advised and represented Fortune 500 clients and Vietnamese government agencies in many of the most complex transactions in Vietnam’s energy and natural resources sector. Some of LDV clients include BHBP Petroleum, GE Oil and Gas, KrisEnergy, Mubadala Petroleum, Petronas, and Phu My 3 BOT Power Plant.