Ashley is based in Hong Kong with a practice focused on M&A and ECM transactions involving listed companies. He also specialises in private equity, financial services, venture capital and direct investments, as well as regulatory and compliance work.
Ashley returned to the firm in October 2004 after completing a three-year appointment as a Board member and Executive Director, Corporate Finance at the Securities and Futures Commission.
Whilst at the Commission, Ashley was responsible for key aspects of listed company regulation, including the Takeovers Code, company prospectuses and the regulation of various aspects of corporate conduct. He was also closely involved in important policy initiatives. These included new regulations for IPO sponsors, new corporate governance standards under the Listing Rules, stabilisation rules for equity offerings, new statutory rules for prospectuses, amendments to the Takeovers Code and a major reform of the regulatory regime for listed companies. He also worked on cross-border issues and was closely involved in the law making process in Hong Kong's Legislative Council.
Credentials
- CNOOC, the third largest oil producer in the PRC, as Hong Kong counsel on the proposed US$18.5 billion merger with Unocal Corporation, one of the US oil major listed on the NYSE
- Sinopec Corporation in its HK$3.8 billion (US$490 million) privatisation of Sinopec Beijing Yanhua Petrochemical Company Limited, a company listed in both Hong Kong and New York, by way of merger of absorption under the PRC Company Law. This was the first ever privatisation of an H share company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
- Goldman Sachs (Asia) and Cazenove Asia on the structuring and execution of the HK$5.1 billion (US$650 million) reverse takeover by Sinochem Hong Kong Holdings Ltd of the PRC-based fertilizer business previously owned by its substantial shareholder, Sinochem Corporation, including a strategic placing, a preferential offering and an institutional placing pursuant to Rule 144A
- China Resources as seller and China Resources Peoples Telephone Company as target of the takeover offer by China Mobile (Hong Kong) worth HK$3.4 billion (US$440 million). The takeover was the first transaction following changes to the Takeover Code in October 2005 dealing specifically with telecoms bids, and also the first such deal that required the formal consent from the Office of Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), involving a public consultation process
- CICC, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch on the HK$4 billion (US$512 million) offering of shares of Dongfeng Motor Group Company, a leading PRC-based manufacturer of passenger and commercial vehicles and auto parts, in a Hong Kong IPO and a Rule 144A/ Regulation S international offering
- Stagecoach Holdings on its US$293 million acquisition and subsequent privatisation of Citybus Group Limited, a company then listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
- Hong Kong Futures Exchange in its merger with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK) and the subsequent listing of the merged exchanges on the SEHK