About Chern Yen

Toh Chern Yen obtained his Master of Laws (LL.M) degree in Banking and Finance Law from King’s College London, University of London and Upper Second-Class Honours Degree in Law from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. He was called to the English Bar at Lincoln’s Inn, London, after completing the Bar Vocational Course at the University of Northumbria, United Kingdom, in 2006. Subsequently, he returned to Malaysia and was called to the Malaysian Bar on 16 October 2008.

Prior to commencing his legal practice in January 2010, he was working in the Debt Capital Market department of an investment bank and was a holder of a capital markets representative licence issued by the Securities Commission of Malaysia. During his tenure in the bank, he provided his legal expertise in the origination and execution of several Islamic and Conventional Private Debt Securities transactions.

Chern Yen commenced legal practice in year 2010, specialising in Banking and Finance law. He was involved in a complex cross-border transaction which won two different awards from Euromoney and Islamic Finance News in 2010. He was also involved in a Sukuk transaction which was awarded Indonesian deal of the year 2013 by Islamic Finance News. Aside from Banking and Finance, Chern Yen is active in the venture capital scene and has been involved in fund raising transactions for start-up companies, whether it being via private-equity or venture capital. In 2018, he was also admitted as a lawyer of the Supreme court of Western Australia.

Chern Yen has been involved in many notable transactions including:

• Ringgit Malaysia 750 million Sukuk Programme based on the principle of Commodity Murabahah by TTM Sukuk Berhad (“TTM Sukuk”). TTM Sukuk is a subsidiary of Trans Thai-Malaysia (Thailand) Limited, a joint venture company between Petronas Nasional Berhad and PTT Public Company Limited to jointly develop the petroleum resources in the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area located in the southern part of the Gulf of Thailand. The Sukuk deal was the first Thai company issuance in Islamic capital markets which involved legal practitioners from 3 different jurisdictions.

• The listing of and quotation for the entire enlarged and paid-up share capital of Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings (“MHB”) comprising 1,600,000,000 ordinary shares of RM0.50 each on the main market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad, the Malaysian Stock Exchange.

• Ringgit Malaysia 20 Billion Government Guaranteed Islamic Medium Term Notes Programme (guaranteed by the Government of Malaysia) by Pengurusan Aset SPV Berhad, a subsidiary of Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad.

• Ringgit Malaysia 1.0 Billion Tier 2 Capital Subordinated Sukuk issuance based on the principle of Musyarakah by Maybank Islamic Berhad.

• A £405 million in syndicated loan facilities arranged by Standard Chartered UK to finance Employee’s Provident Fund (“EPF”)’s £700 million acquisition of 12 hospital properties from Britain’s Spire Healthcare Group. The transaction involved a complex recourse and fund flow structure which involved 10 sets of legal practitioners from 5 different jurisdictions.

• Singapore stock exchange listed Golden Agri-Resource Ltd’s Ringgit Malaysia 1.5 Billion Sukuk programme. Golden Agri-Resources Ltd was at that point of time the largest plantation group in Indonesia and second largest plantation company globally in terms of planted acreage. The deal was awarded Indonesian deal of the year 2013 by Islamic Finance News.

• Multicurrency 3.5 billion Sukuk Programme comprising Islamic Medium Term Notes Programme and Conventional Medium Term Notes by Korea Development Bank.

• Debt restructuring of Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor, a Selangor state government-linked company responsible for water supply services in Selangor and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

• Member, Malaysian Bar
• Member, International Bar Association (IBA)