Image of Benjamin Foo

Benjamin Foo

Senior Associate

Email

benjamin.foo@aoshearman.com

Phone

+65 6671 6287

Offices

Singapore

V-CARD
Benjamin advises on a broad spectrum of contentious and transactional restructuring and insolvency matters, ranging from consensual workouts and court-supervised restructurings (such as schemes of arrangement and judicial management) to liquidation, asset-recovery, and enforcement.

He regularly works with various stakeholders in insolvency proceedings, including corporate debtors and their board of directors, financial institutions, insolvency officeholders, and other stakeholder groups. He has been actively involved in several market-leading deals in Singapore involving the restructuring of SGX-listed bonds and pre-packaged schemes of arrangement, and was a contributing author to the judicial management chapter in a leading treatise on corporate law in Singapore. 
Benjamin actively gives back to his community and has served as a Council Member of the Law Society of Singapore since 2018 and presently serves on its Executive Committee, Insolvency Practice Committee and ADR Committee. He was also placed on the Supreme Court of Singapore's Young Amicus Curiae Scheme in 2022, a scheme which enables young advocates and solicitors to assist the Court on novel points of law and important issues of public policy. 
 
Restructuring and insolvency is Benjamin's area of expertise.

Expertise

Experience

Representative matters

  • A bilateral facility lender in connection with their USD100 million exposure to the restructuring of China Aoyuan Group Limited, which included advising on the parallel and inter-conditional schemes of arrangement filed in Hong Kong, the United States, and the British Virgin Islands for the restructuring of the China Aoyuan Group’s USD15 billion offshore debt.
  • Nam Cheong Limited and its subsidiaries (previous firm experience) on its USD1.35 bn debt restructuring, including USD240m bonds issued and listed on the Singapore Exchange. The matter involved cross-border elements and the restructuring was carried out via parallel and inter-conditional schemes of arrangement by Nam Cheong and its key subsidiaries in Singapore and Malaysia.
  • A Japanese bank on a consensual workout of a defaulted USD50 million facility extended to a Vietnamese corporate for a public infrastructure project which was guaranteed by the Vietnamese government.
  • A Tier-1 US private credit fund and their appointed receivers on the enforcement, workout, and eventual exit on a defaulted India law-governed debt instrument issued by an Indian corporate.
  • A Japanese private equity fund and its JV partners (previous firm experience) on a debt and equity restructuring of its investment into an Indian tech company. This matter had contentious elements and required the implementation of a multi-faceted strategy which included SIAC arbitration and India Court proceedings against the founders of the Indian company.

Published Work

  • The Unbearable Lightness of Fair Dealing: Towards an Autochthonous Approach in Singapore, Singapore Academy of Law Journal, 2016
  • The Extraneous Factors Rule in Trademark Law: Avoiding Confusion or Simply Confusing, Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, 2016
  • A Balancing Act: The Interplay between Singapore's Insolvency and Admiralty Regimes, INSOL World, 2019
  • Chapter N (Judicial Management), Woon's Corporations Law, LexisNexis, 2021

Speaking Engagements

  • Panellist, Back to Office 3.0, Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, November 2021
  • Panellist, Publicity vs Advertisement: Where are we at?, International Malaysia Law Conference, July 2023 
  • Panellist, Climate Change and the Law, Presidents of Law Associations of Asia Conference, July 2023
  • Speaker, Restructuring Seminar, Asia Pacific Loan Market Association, December 2023

Leadership Positions And Professional Affiliations

  • Council Member, The Law Society of Singapore
  • Member, Singapore Academy of Law
  • Member, The Law Society of Singapore

Qualifications

Admissions

Singapore (Advocate and Solicitor), 2016

Academic

LL.B. (First Class Honours), National University of Singapore, 2015

Languages

English
Disclaimer
A&O Shearman was formed on May 1, 2024 by the combination of Shearman & Sterling LLP and Allen & Overy LLP and their respective affiliates (the legacy firms). Any matters referred to above may include matters undertaken by one or more of the legacy firms rather than A&O Shearman.