Meiyen Tan

Director
Ascendant Legal

Singapore
Singapore
T:+65 63095304
Singapore
Singapore
T:+65 63095304
Meiyen Tan

Meiyen Tan

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Biography

Meiyen Tan is a restructuring and insolvency lawyer based in Singapore, where she leads the practice. She is also a director at Ascendant Legal, a Singapore law firm in Formal Law Alliance with Norton Rose Fulbright. Meiyen has more than 20 years' experience specialising in restructuring and insolvency matters with particular emphasis on complex cross-border matters. She is also a leading fraud and asset tracing lawyer and regularly represents insolvency practitioners and other clients in claims involving fraud, breaches of directors and other fiduciary duties, and asset tracing.

Meiyen is a member of the Board of INSOL International being the first Singapore representative on the board in the 40 year history of INSOL International. She is also the Vice President of the Singapore chapter of the Turnaround Management Association. She is one of the founding members of the Singapore Network of the International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC) and was until 2019 the Co-Chairperson of the Singapore Network.

Meiyen is ranked by the leading legal directories including Chambers and Partners, Benchmark Litigation, Asia Law Profiles, Who's Who Legal and Global Restructuring Review.

Meiyen is qualified as an Advocate & Solicitor of Singapore and Malaysia. She is also a member of the Bar of England & Wales and admitted to the Roll of Solicitors of England & Wales.

Professional experience

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University of Warwick (LLB Honours)

  • Advocate and Solicitor, qualified in Singapore
  • Advocate and Solicitor, qualified in Malaysia
  • Solicitor, qualified in England & Wales
  • Represented the US Trustee of Zetta Jet Pte Ltd and Zetta Jet USA, Inc. in the first reported cases in Singapore under the UNCITRAL Model Law and successfully obtained recognition of the US Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Proceedings as a foreign main proceeding and the appointment of the US Trustee therein.
  • Advised and acted for Agritrade International (Pte) Ltd, a Singapore commodity firm, and its subsidiaries in seeking a moratorium under sections 211B and 211C of the Companies Act with a view to proposing a scheme of arrangement to restructure US$1.5 billion worth of debts.
  • Advised and acted for PT Modernland Realty Tbk and its subsidiaries in the restructuring of the 2021 Notes issued by JGC Ventures Pte Ltd, and the 2024 Notes issued by Modernland Overseas Pte. Ltd, with a combine face value of USD390 million.
  • Represented PT MNC Investama Tbk in obtaining an extension of the moratorium from the Singapore High Court under section 211B of the Companies Act as the company seeks court protection to restructure its USD213,000,000 worth of 9% Senior Secured Notes.
  • Represented Xihe Capital Pte Ltd ("Xihe Capital"), its subsidiaries and several special purpose vehicles (collectively, the "Xihe Capital Group"). The Xihe Capital Group is owned by the Lim Family, who also owns the distressed Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd, Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd and Xihe Holdings Pte Ltd ("Xihe Holdings"). The total debt of these companies is estimated to be in the range of USD 4 billion.
  • Represented Asiatravel.com Holdings Ltd. and its subsidiary, AT Reservation Network Pte Ltd, which primary focus are in the online travel business, in proposing schemes of arrangement and successfully applied for super priority status for rescue financing under section 211E of the Companies Act.
  • Advised and acted for Mencast Holdings Ltd., a Singapore company listed on the Mainboard of the SGX which provides marine and offshore engineering and maintenance, repair and overhaul solutions, and its group of subsidiaries in successfully restructuring the group's debts totalling $193 million with several institutional lenders.
  • Acted for the majority club lenders in Pacific Andes to successfully set aside moratoria protection in Singapore. 
  • Asialaw Leading Lawyers 2022 – Distinguished Practitioner, Restructuring and Insolvency
  • Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific –  Litigation Star (Insolvency), Top 100 Women in Litigation – Asia Pacific 
  • Chambers Asia – Band 3 leading lawyer in Restructuring/Insolvency: Domestic in Singapore
  • Who's Who Legal - Thought Leaders – Restructuring & Insolvency 2022
  • Who's Who Legal - Global Leader – Restructuring & Insolvency 2023
  • Who's Who Legal - National Leader – Southeast Asia - Restructuring & Insolvency 2023
  • Global Restructuring Review - "Names to know in Singapore"
  • Legal 500 Asia Pacific recommends Meiyen and includes a testimonial that she "is simply amazing, her capacity for dealing with complicated creditor and legal dynamics is very unique."
  • Legal 500 Asia Pacific – Tier 3 Firm (Oon & Bazul LLP) – Meiyen was the lead partner at the time of this ranking.
  • English

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