Yee Ming is a Partner in the Corporate Practice Group in Christopher & Lee Ong, and has been in legal practice for over 20 years with deep industry knowledge across multiple sectors including telecommunications, information technology, logistics engineering, oil and gas services, and retail businesses.

With over ten years of experience in strategy, commercial and general management roles within various multinational corporations across multiple industries, Yee Ming’s forte is managing complex negotiations, especially in a technical environment, and drawing upon his ability to provide sound legal advice with significant commercial and industry insights.

Clients leverage Yee Ming’s industry experience by engaging him to lead their in-house mergers and acquisitions teams in advising on project management, negotiations and closing of transactions.

He has been engaged in projects involving the engineering, procurement and construction of monorail lines, wireless telecommunications networks and information technology ("IT") systems. He has also been involved in undertaking due diligence and advising on acquisitions and disposals of IT businesses, oil country tubular goods ("OCTG") and waste treatment and disposal businesses, logistics businesses, mining concessions, commercial real estate projects and franchised retail businesses in the region, particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Yee Ming has also been consulted on and developed templates incorporating best practices for use in large-scale procurements.

Clients of the firm have lauded Yee Ming as “a good negotiator who provides strong advice” and a very “attentive” lawyer.

Experience

Corporate & Commercial

• Acted as the local counsel for One Rock Capital Partners, LLC. ("Buyer")  in their US$800 million acquisition of Eastman Chemical Company’s ("Seller") tire additives business, with manufacturing facilities located in Kuantan. We assisted on the overall setting up of the Buyer’s local subsidiary in Malaysia (i.e., NewCo), whereby the assets and business of the Seller’s local subsidiary in Malaysia is to be transferred to the NewCo.
• Acted for Aseana Properties Limited (LSE: ASPL) in the RM 419 million disposal of the Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral Hotel.
• Acted as local counsel (in collaboration with Rajah & Tann) for Heinemann Asia Pacific Pet Ltd in its EUR 52 million acquisition of an equity interest in DFZ Capital Bhd, the largest duty-free retailing group in Malaysia.
• Acted for the owners of the TF hypermarket business in the sale of their business to KV Asia Capital.
• Acted for Envictus International Holdings Ltd (SP: EIH) in its acquisition of the San Francisco Coffee specialty coffee chain.
• Acted for Dorner Mfg on its acquisition of Flexmove group of companies, a Malaysian manufacturer of conveyor transportation systems.
• Acted for Berjaya Corporation Berhad (MYX: 3395) in its acquisition of a data analytics business.
• Acted for the shareholders of Gading Sari Aviation Sdn Bhd in the RM 72 million disposal of their air freight operator business.
• Acted for Aseana Properties Limited (LSE: ASPL) in the acquisition of shares in Nam Long Investment Corporation (HOSE: NLG).
• Acted for Sumitomo Corporation (TYO: 8053) in the establishment of an integrated OCTG supply and pipe threading facility in Brunei, and the operation and management of the facility on an outsourced basis to service Brunei Shell Petroleum.
• Acted for Scomi Engineering Bhd (MYX: 7366) in the US$110 million sale of its regional OCTG machine shop business headquartered in Singapore to Sumitomo Corporation.
• Acted for Aseana Properties Limited (LSE: ASPL) in its joint venture with Hoa Lam Services Co. Ltd. to develop the US$770 million GDV International Hi-Tech Healthcare Park.
• Acted for Ireka Corporation Berhad (MYX: 8834) in its two-call rights issue.
• Acted for Amalgamated Industrial Steel Berhad (MYX: 2682) in its par-value reduction exercise.
• Acted for Mega First Corporation Berhad (MYX: 3069), in the formation of a joint venture to invest in a power plant in Indochina.
• Acted for Frontier Capital Group Limited (ASX: FCG) in its acquisition of CK Graphic Sdn Bhd.
• Advising on the formulation of corporate governance processes and procedures for a company listed on an international stock exchange.
• Advising on the formulation of best practices in tender and procurement processes and documentation.
• Drafting and negotiating the documents on behalf of Lucent Technologies for the design, sale and rollout of a US$700 million wireless telephone network in Taiwan.
• Drafting and negotiating the documents on behalf of Accenture in a Business Process Outsourcing of information technology functions by a large conglomerate in Thailand.
• Acted as Malaysian counsel for Wingtech Technology Co Ltd. in the acquisition of an indirect controlling stake in Nexperia Holding B.V.
• Acted for Electrolux as local counsel for the separation of the Electrolux Professional business from the Electrolux Group in Malaysia via a share transfer exercise.
• Acting for a US-incorporated entity of a China-based company involved in the manufacturing of protective disposal gloves, in its share acquisition of a Malaysian subsidiary disposable medical gloves manufacturing company.
• Assisting the subsidiaries of one of Malaysia’s largest retail conglomerates in its transformation from a card-based loyalty programme service provider into a digital platform offering. This includes conducting due diligence on potential partners, structuring transactions for the client, negotiating with potential partners to protect the client’s interest in its minority investment, and working with the external financial advisors appointed by the client to structure the various businesses into a holding company and to fund-raise for the holding company.
• Acting as Malaysian counsel to one of the largest chemicals marketing companies in connection with the proposed acquisition of a 50% stake in an industrial chemical manufacturer and its subsidiaries.
• Advising and assisting a Fortune 500 global company with the acquisition of shares in a Malaysian chemicals and allied products wholesale company from the other shareholders of the company such that it becomes the sole shareholder.
• Advising and assisting a Japanese retail and wholesale trading company with the acquisition of the majority shareholding in a Malaysian trading company supplying Japanese ingredients, via the subscription of new shares and/or purchase of  ordinary shares from the existing shareholders.
• Advising and assisting a private equity fund manager with the investment of US$3 million or its equivalent in MYR in an offshore services contractor providing a range of geophysical, geotechnical and subsea related solutions to marine related industries, via subscription of Redeemable Convertible Cumulative Preference Shares.
• Advised Sojitz Corporation (a sogo shosha) with a proposed joint venture with Culture Convenience Club Co Ltd and Pavilion Trading Enterprise Sdn Bhd in setting up the franchise of Tsutaya Book Store in Malaysia.
• Acting as Malaysian counsel in connection with the offering and listing of shares of a mobile application software developer on SEHK.

Employment

• Advising a Japanese printing company in executing the closing down of its Malaysian subsidiary's operations in Malaysia. This involved coordinating the retrenchment of its entire workforce and advising on the restructuring, amalgamation and eventual winding up of the company.
• Advising and assisting one of the largest mixed martial arts promotions with the retrenchment and implementation of salary reductions of its Malaysian subsidiary.
• Acted for an established heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems provider with a presence in Malaysia for more than 60 years, in addressing various employment issues arising from the impending business closure, including dealing with retiring employees, consultation with employee union, issues arising from selection process as business units will be downsized gradually to the eventual closure, calculation of retrenchment benefits and potential retaliation or insubordination issues. This included advising the senior management on other aspects of the business closure, such as alternate restructuring options, licensing issues, sale of assets and winding up procedure.
• Acted for the Malaysian arm of a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest companies in the world in motion control technologies, including aerospace, climate control, electromechanical, and hydraulics, to investigate the work culture as well as the work relationship between the employees therein. The findings of the investigation served as a guide to assess the performance of key management personnel.
• Advised a global manufacturer and supplier of standard and perforated tipping papers that has been operating in Malaysia for more than 15 years, on the consideration and procedures of terminating the employment of an underperforming C-suite employee, which included translating the shortcomings of the said employee into discernible figures, advising on the documentation of the performance review and drafting the warning letter and mutual separation agreement. The advice  included the assessment of ex-gratia payment and advising on the procedures to terminate the C-suite employee’s directorship, as well as the delicate negotiations and timing of the termination and appointment of both employees, shortening of notice periods and the drafting of the executive service agreement of the new C-suite employee.
• Assisted a regional telecommunications infrastructure services company in drafting the by-laws for an employee incentive plan. This matter is of particular significance given that they were contemplating the option of a listing and IPO on the stock exchange of Malaysia (Bursa Malaysia) at a speculated valuation of US$2.5 billion.