Joanne Lao is an associate in the Hong Kong office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the Corporate Department.

She primarily advises on cross-border M&A, capital market transactions, and compliance with Hong Kong’s Listing Rules.

Joanne ’s experience includes advising:
  • Evolution Data Centres on its:
    • Joint venture agreement with Central Pattana PCL, one of the largest property developers in Thailand, to design, build, and operate a state-of-the-art carrier-neutral data centre in central Bangkok
    • Joint venture with Megawide to build, operate, and develop data centers in the Philippines
  • Warburg Pincus on its establishment of Oona Insurance (Oona), a digital general insurance platform in Southeast Asia, and on Oona’s initial acquisitions of two general insurance assets in the region
  • ARA Asset Management, the largest independent and pure play real assets manager in Asia Pacific, on:
    • A US$5.2 billion business combination of the ARA Group with ESR Cayman Limited to become APAC’s leading real asset manager and the third largest listed real estate investment manager globally
    • Its US$500 million equity round of financing, in which Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation was the lead investor
    • Its US$1.3 billion joint buyout, together with Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing, of Kenedix, Inc., one of Japan’s leading real estate fund managers
    • A strategic acquisition of a majority stake in LOGOS Property Group, a logistics real estate development platform
    • A proportional offer for 29% of all securities in the ASX-listed Cromwell Property Group, a real estate investor and manager
  • Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, and its management shareholders on the US$988 million disposal of its portfolio company Straive (formerly known as SPi Global), a leading global provider of technology-driven content and data solutions, to Baring Private Equity Asia
  • Warburg Pincus-backed Vincom Retail’s US$740 million initial equity offering on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) — awarded Best Private Equity Deal at the FinanceAsia Achievement Awards 2017
  • Warburg Pincus on the US$214 million joint venture between affiliates of Warburg Pincus and Becamex IDC to form BW Industrial Development Joint Stock, a Vietnam-based developer of institutional-grade industrial and logistics properties 
     

Bar Qualification

  • Hong Kong (Solicitor)

Education

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Laws, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2017
  • Bachelor of Arts in Law, Downing College, Cambridge University, 2016