Ropes & Gray adds Hong Kong corporate partner

Ropes & Gray has hired capital markets and M&A lawyer Victoria Lloyd from Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in Hong Kong as it continues to build its practice in the city.

The Boston-headquartered law firm, which has a strong focus on private equity clients, launched its Hong Kong law practice in May last year, having first opened an office in the city in 2008.

Lloyd, an English-qualified lawyer, will work alongside the firm’s 10 Hong Kong partners, including US securities lawyer Paul Boltz and English-law M&A and capital markets partner Julian Chung. All three are also qualified locally.

Lloyd was one of a group of nine partners, led by Huen Wong, who left Simmons & Simmons in 2006 to set up Fried Frank’s Hong Kong office. At Ropes & Gray, Lloyd will once again be helping a US law firm to establish its Hong Kong law practice.

“I look forward to working with my new partners to take Ropes & Gray’s corporate platform in Hong Kong to the next level,” said Lloyd.

There is plenty of competition. The UK firms have long been offering local law advice in Hong Kong and started to hire US lawyers in the city more than a decade ago, while US firms have been adding local law during the past few years — from the big Wall Street firms such as Davis Polk & Wardwell, Shearman & Sterling, Skadden Arps and Sullivan & Cromwell, to more direct competitors such as Kirkland Ellis, which also focuses on private equity clients.

There may also be plenty of work to go round. Private equity funds in China have been facing something of an exit crisis during the past couple of years, as the opportunity to exit through initial public offerings in Hong Kong has been dramatically reduced.

As many funds reach maturity, they will be forced to exit one way or another, which may create acquisition opportunities for buyers, who are keen to get their hands on high-quality PE-invested businesses in China.

Lloyd’s experience in M&A and equity capital market transactions is clearly complementary to Ropes & Gray’s focus on private equity. Its recent work in Hong Kong includes advising TPG on the take-private of ShangPharma, Sequoia Capital and Doll Capital Management in the secondary sale of their stakes in New York-listed Vipshop, and China Everbright in the take-private of Focus Media.