Expertise
Banking and Finance
Capital Markets
International Arbitration
Mergers & Acquisitions
Thang Pham is a YKVN partner based in Singapore. Dual-qualified in Vietnam and California, he has more than fourteen years of experience in corporate M&A and international arbitration.
Thang has advised on a wide variety of M&A transactions ranging from acquisitions of companies or assets in highly regulated sectors such as banking, securities or oil & gas, to billion-dollar real estate joint ventures. Most recently, he advised UOBAM in an acquisition of a fund management company in Vietnam.
Thang is also an experienced capital markets lawyer, having advised institutional investors and Vietnamese issuers in some of the most significant Vietnamese equity offerings in recent years, including Novaland, Vietjet, VP Bank, Vincom Retails, Vinhomes and Techcombank.
Thang is a member of the YKVN team currently working with WilmerHale (London, D.C. and New York) in defending Vietnam and Petrovietnam in several complex arbitrations. He is a member of the YKVN team advising a major Vietnamese company in a dispute involving a substantial investment project in West Africa. He was also a member of the YKVN team advising Petrovietnam in contentious negotiations relating to the first exercise by Petrovietnam of its regulatory pre-emption right. In 2014, he was a member of the YKVN team working with Shearman & Sterling (Paris) in successfully defending Petrovietnam in a US$100 million Singapore arbitration initiated by a consortium of two international oil companies. He is currently a member of the YKVN team representing a Vietnamese company in disputes that may involve litigation in Vietnam as well as SIAC arbitration. He has been involved with SIAC and VIAC commercial arbitrations, including interim relief applications.
Prior to joining YKVN Singapore office, Thang was based for 5 years in the Hanoi office of the Firm. Thang also spent a year at Sidley Austin in its Chicago headquarters (M&A practice) and Houston office (Oil & Gas practice). He is recognized by asialaw as a “Rising Star” in Corporate and M&A. Recently, Thang has been appointed as a Committee Member of YSIAC (Young Singapore International Arbitration Centre). YSIAC Committee is a body gathering arbitration practitioners aged 40 years and under to guide the activities of YSIAC, a platform to encourage and promote events and initiatives for nurturing and giving opportunities to young arbitration practitioners all over the world.
Education
University of California, Berkeley School of Law, LL.M. (2015)
Hanoi University of Law, LL.B. (2007)
Bar Membership
Hanoi Bar Association
Vietnam Bar Federation
California Bar Association
Registered Foreign Lawyer in Singapore
Mergers & Acquisitions
- Advised GIC in a US$1.2 billion investment in Vinhomes, a leading Vietnamese real estate developer, including a US$800 million pre-IPO investment and a US$400 million investment in three residential real estate joint venture projects;
- Advising a Singapore banking group in its acquisition of a fund management company in Vietnam;
- Advised Woori Investment and Securities Co., Ltd. as buyer on the purchase of a stake in Bien Viet Securities Joint Stock Company;
- Advised a consortium of a Vietnamese State-owned bank and a Thai bank in a proposed acquisition of a consumer financial company in Vietnam;
- Advised Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) and Petrovietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP) in the acquisition of upstream Vietnamese assets from Conoco Phillips;
- Advised Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) on the sale of a strategic 49% interest in its US$1.5 billion 1200MW power plant in Vietnam to the international investing arm of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGATi);
- Advised Posco E&C in the sale of its stake in a 264ha urban city development north of Hanoi, Vietnam;
- Advised Mapletree in the acquisition of Centre Point, a mixed-used commercial building in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam;
- Advised Soil Build, a Singapore investor, and CT Group, a Vietnamese real estate developer in a joint venture to develop a mixed-use real estate project;
- Advised Thien Minh Group in a joint venture with Air Asia to form a new aviation company in Vietnam;
- Advised Vietnam Construction and Import – Export Joint Stock Corporation as seller on the proposed sale of a stake in Cam Pha Cement Plant to foreign investors;
- Advised the investment company of one of the biggest Korean Chaebol in a bid to acquire and take private a listed logistic company in Vietnam;
- Advised PVEP on the bid for Chevron’s oilfield and pipeline (Block B, Block 52 and pipeline) assets in Vietnam; and
- Advised a subsidiary of PVEP on the purchase the shares from Perenco Peru (Holdings) Ltd. (a subsidiary of Perenco, S.A.) in a Bahamian target company holding 95% of the participating interest in the Block 67 contract.
Capital Markets
- Advised GIC in its pre-IPO investments in Novaland, Vietjet, Vincom Retails and VP Bank;
- Advised Techcombank in its pre-IPO sale and equity offering and listing on the HOSE;
- Advised Texhong Textile Group Limited as issuer in its bond issue of US$200 million senior unsecured notes due 2016 and listing on Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited;
- Advised Texhong Textile Group Limited as issuer in its bond issue of US$200 million senior notes due 2019 and listing on Hong Kong Stock Exchange;
- Advised Barclays Bank PLC and HSBC as joint lead managers in the international issuance of bonds by Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank); and
- Advised Credit Suisse as underwriter counsel in the Vincom’s US$100 million convertible bond issuance.
Banking and Finance
- Advised the China Development Bank as lender’s counsel in connection with its financing for the Hai Duong BOT Power Plant, a 1,200MW coal-fired power plant that is located in Hai Duong Province developed by JASK Pacific Power Limited;
- Advised a syndicate of foreign banks led by Credit Suisse as lender’s counsel on a US$300 million financing for Vietnam Coal and Mineral Resources Group (Vinacomin);
- Advised Standard Chartered Bank as lender’s counsel in a US$100 million financing for BIDV;
- Advised the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as lender’s counsel in a US$50 million financing for the Vietnam International Bank (VIB);
- Advised the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as lender’s counsel in a US$50 million financing for the Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank);
- Advised UOB as lender’s counsel in a US$20 million financing for BIDV;
- Advised PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation Ltd (PVEP) as borrower’s counsel on a US$430 million syndicated financing arranged by Standard Chartered Bank;
- Advised PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation Ltd (PVEP) as borrower’s counsel on a US$75 million financing by DBS Bank Ltd.;
- Advised Vingroup Joint Stock Company as borrower’s counsel on a US$100 million syndicated financing arranged by Credit Suisse;
- Advised BIDV as borrower’s counsel on a US$100 million financing arranged by Standard Chartered Bank;
- Advised BIDV as borrower’s counsel on a US$75 million syndicated financing arranged by Standard Chartered Bank; and
- Represented Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade and Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development as lender counsel on the financings of a number of power, cement, real estates and other infrastructure projects in Vietnam, including among others:
– the US$ 255 million financing of the Dong Nai 3 and Dong Nai 4 Hydropower Plants;
– the US$134 million financing of the Nam Chien Hydropower Plant;
– the US$110 million financing of the Se San 3A Hydropower Plant;
– the US$ 90 million financing of the Song Tranh 2 Hydropower Plant;
– the US$224 million financing of the Dinh Vu Polyester Fiber Plant; and
– the US$68 million financing of the Viet Hoa – Kenmark Industrial Zone.
Other matters
- Advised McDonald’s on the negotiation of a franchise for Vietnam with a leading Vietnamese business partner;
- Advised Vietcombank Fund Management Company on establishment of a Vietnam real estate focused fund; and
- Represented Petrovietnam (as co-counsel with Shearman & Sterling (Emmanuel Gaillard and Yas Banifatemi)) in a US$100 million indemnity tax claim ICC arbitration in Singapore against a consortium of two independent oil contractors. This arbitration was an Asia Lawyer 2016 Finalist for Dispute of the Year: Arbitration.
