Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL), HKU

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Professor Philip St. John Smart Memorial Lecture

Meet the Team

Professor Philip St. John Smart Memorial Lecture

Lehman Brothers’ Cross-border Insolvency

Asian Institute of International Financial Law | Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong

Date & Time Friday, 21 November 2014 6:30-7:30 pm (HKT)
Duration 1:00
Location Academic Conference Room, 11/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong

In his talk Mr Middleton discusses the issues arising as a result of the different approaches to insolvency
and restructuring around the world, as well as looking at some of the thorny questions arising in this
behemoth of a group insolvency. Is there hope for future improvement?

About the Speaker

Edward Middleton

Partner and Head of Restructuring Services, Asia-Pacific, KPMG

Edward Middleton has been involved in insolvency and corporate restructuring matters since 1990, with half of those years spent in Hong Kong. He cut his teeth with Stoy Hayward and KPMG in the UK before moving to Hong Kong with KPMG to work on the liquidation of the Hong Kong arm of the celebrated Bank of Credit & Commerce International and other insolvency cases. He has also done tours of duty in Hungary and Thailand, before returning to Hong Kong in 2002. His practice at KPMG comprises the full range of services that leading insolvency practices now offer, to both corporates and individuals. Mr Middleton is currently leading the largest “live” restructuring in Hong Kong, a Hong Kong-listed group with 7,000 employees operating across international borders, as well as leading the KPMG team leading the provisional liquidation of recently-collapsed Hong Kong-airline, Oasis. Almost all of the work is cross-border, an inevitable consequence of Hong Kong’s relationship with mainland China (in which we are witnessing the growing pains of a brand-new insolvency system), and of the wide-spread use by Hong Kong companies, listed and private, of off-shore jurisdictions such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. Mr Middleton’s career in insolvency and restructuring is now into its third decade. Beginning with a rigorous and robust introduction to the specialism in the UK’s Midlands’ industrial heartland before moving to London, the major part of his career has been spent in Asia, where he has now spent more than fifteen years, primarily based in Hong Kong but also including two years in post-Asian Financial crisis Thailand. Mr Middleton also slipped in a year spent in Hungary working in the aftermath of the collapse of the Berlin wall. Mr Middleton leads a practice that undertakes the full range of corporate and personal insolvency and restructuring matters, both in court and out of court, across all industries and across borders