Chelsea has substantial experience advising leading insurance companies and financial institutions in a wide range of legal and regulatory matters, with a particular focus on corporate transactions, insurance regulatory and compliance matters, as well as reinsurance transactions.
She also advises on capital market matters as well as banking and finance matters which include debt capital markets, corporate finance, Islamic finance, project finance, securities offerings and corporate restructuring.
A regular contributor on thought leadership in the insurance space, Chelsea has co-authored the “Thomson Reuters’ Insurance Guide“, published by Thomson Reuters, as well as the “Guide to Doing Insurance Business in ASEAN“, published by Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP.
EXPERIENCE
Insurance
- Acted as Malaysian counsel in the merger of two insurance broking giants.
- Advised a general insurer on its corporate restructuring exercise and successful transfer of its Labuan branch via a scheme of transfer sanctioned by the High Court of Malaya.
- Acted for a Chinese state-owned insurer in its acquisition of a Malaysian general insurer.
- Advised a Singaporean insurer on its acquisition of a Malaysian life insurer.
- Acted as Malaysian counsel for a Japanese insurer in its acquisition of a London Stock Exchange listed insurer.
- Advised a Swiss reinsurer and a Swedish furniture giant on a white-labelling insurance product.
- Acted as Malaysian counsel for a French state-owned insurer, in its global restructuring exercises and successfully securing the approval from the Labuan Financial Services Authority.
- Advised a Swiss reinsurer on various reinsurance transactions.
- Advised a leading Singaporean bank on financing and securitisation issues involving a Malaysian insurer.
- Advised a Singaporean multinational bank on its bancassurance business model.
- Advised various insurance and reinsurance companies on issuances of debt and hybrid securities.
- Advised insurers, reinsurers, insurance intermediaries, financial institutions and investors in a wide range of transactional and regulatory matters, including domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions involving regulated entities, licensing and deregistration of regulated entities, non-admitted insurance issues, structuring insurance / reinsurance policies, distribution arrangements, captive insurance, reinsurance transactions, insurance business transfer, loss portfolio transfer, collateral arrangements and commutations.
Banking & Finance
- Advised the National Home Mortgage Corporation of Malaysia on the reopening of conventional medium term notes (“CMTN“) and Islamic medium term notes (“IMTN“) pursuant to a CMTN/IMTN programme with an aggregate limit of up to RM 40 billion in nominal value.
- Advised on issuance of green sukuk certified by the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo (“CICERO”) pursuant to an Islamic medium term notes programme of up to RM 250 million in nominal value.
- Advised a local investment bank on a project financing matter in relation to the financing of the construction and development of a new coal-fired power plant in an aggregate of RM 8.4 billion.
- Advised a local investment bank on a highway financing project, including dealing and obtaining the necessary approvals from the Public Private Partnership Unit under the Prime Minister’s Office.
- Advised a local investment bank on issuance of hybrid perpetual notes and perpetual sukuk under the Shariah concept of Musharakah and Musawamah.
- Advised on issuance of Basel III compliant Tier 2 subordinated sukuk by a Malaysian Islamic financial institution.
- Advised a local investment bank on the issuance of sukuk murabahah (via a Tawarruq arrangement) by a prominent construction and power generation company.
- Advised the joint lead arrangers on issuance of sukuk under the Shariah principle Wakalah Bi Al-Istithmar by a Japanese global banking entity.
- Advised on issuance of Tier 2 Capital subordinated medium term notes by a reinsurance company.
- Advised on a debt financing matter involving a property development, theme park, hotel and leisure company.
- Acted for a Malaysian bank in a ship financing and factoring transaction.
Corporate
- Advised a leading Malaysia conglomerate on its joint venture project with the Malaysian Retirement Fund to develop a project covering an area of 153,000ha with a total investment of RM 290 billion.
- Advised a leading Malaysia conglomerate on its proposed disposal of shares in a concession company.
- Advised the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund on real estate development issues arising in Tun Razak Exchange.
- Advised a private equity fund in the sale of its stake in a public listed payment service provider.
- Advised on the restructuring and sale of a subsidiary of an American renewable energy company with Feed-in-Tariff (“FiT“) licence issued by the Malaysian Sustainable Energy Development Authority.
- Acted for a Chinese state-owned steel corporation in respect of its proposed acquisition of steel assets in Malaysia.
- Advised a Chinese construction company on the proposed cooperation to build and construct a proposed highway project in Malaysia.
- Advised a leading Chinese real estate developer on its corporate exercise in Malaysia.
- Advised a premier healthcare and hospitality group in respect of its proposed acquisition of a healthcare related company.
- Advised a foreign commercial bank in establishing and setting up a branch in Labuan.
MEMBERSHIPS / DIRECTORSHIPS
- Member, Malaysian Bar
- Member, Malaysian Insurance Institute
