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Walkers opens in Hong Kong

15 September 2003 - Leading Cayman Islands based law firm Walkers continues to build its international presence with a new office in Hong Kong, run by resident partner Vicki Hazelden.

The office, located at Chater House, 8 Connaught Street Central opened on 15 September 2003 and offers Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands (BVI) legal advice, principally in the areas of Capital Markets & Structured Finance, Asset Finance, Investment Funds and Insolvency & Corporate Recovery.

Vicki Hazelden is an experienced Cayman Islands lawyer and has acted for Asia based clients for a number of years. "The demand from clients for Walkers to set up an office in Hong Kong has been growing steadily,” she says. “We see a lot of potential in Hong Kong and plan to grow the office substantially over the next 12 months.” Together with corporate associate Nick Rogers, she plans to significantly expand and develop the office and has set a near term target of having eight or nine lawyers in Hong Kong.

Hazelden adds: “The role of offshore counsel is very much to provide an efficient service. There is no doubt that we can offer an even better service by being here in Hong Kong and being able to see clients face to face. There can be difficulties for Asia based clients in relying on offshore counsel located in another time zone, as even the best run multi-jurisdictional transactions can throw up last minute issues. We can now immediately address those issues by offering Cayman and BVI legal advice during Asian office hours, combined with the continuing facility for overnight document turn-round from our offices in the Cayman Islands, the BVI and London.”

Senior partner Grant Stein says: “Our Asia based clients form an important part of our practice and our new office in Hong Kong will enable us to provide advice in Asia to the same high standard as in our other offices in Cayman, the BVI and London. With offices now in the three key time zones of North America, Europe and Asia we can offer an efficient round the clock service anywhere in the world. The 'one stop' service offered by the firm and its affiliated trust company, Walkers SPV Limited essentially covers all time zones as well, with the newly expanded Tokyo office of Walkers SPV Limited having been established for more than a year.”

Walkers acts on both the winner and runner-up deals in the ISR Asia Deal of the Year Awards 2003

February 2004 - Leading Cayman Islands based law firm Walkers is pleased to have acted on both the winner and runner-up transactions in the Asia category of the International Securitisation Report (ISR) Awards for 2003. The awards were announced by ISR at the end of January.

The ISR Asia Deal of the Year 2003 was KAL Japan ABS I, the issue of ¥27,000,000,000 Secured Floating Rate Notes due 2006, lead managed by Nomura International plc, and originated by Korean Airlines. This was the first ever transaction to issue asset-backed securities denominated in Yen and the first to securitise future flows in Japan. It was the biggest ticket receivables deal ever completed and the first to securitise receivables from the International Air Transport Association's billing and payment unit - the global system that handles air ticket purchases.

The runner-up Deal of the Year 2003 was Lion Synthetic No. 1, lead managed by HSBC Bank plc. This was Asia's first ever securitisation backed by taxi and public light bus loan receivables. Aside from being the first of its type in terms of assets, the deal was a synthetic issue which makes it a rarity for the Asian market.

In addition, Walkers acted on Brazilian Merchant Voucher Receivables 2003-1, the runner-up in the ISR International Deal of the Year 2003 category.

Walkers structured finance partner Ian Ashman commented:

" To have acted on these complex, ground breaking deals is a clear reflection of the outstanding quality of our structured finance lawyers and Walkers' reputation as the Cayman firm of choice in the international securitisation marketplace. "

Walkers acts on the winner of the Securitisation Deal of the Year at the
IFLR Asian Awards 2003

23 March 2004 Leading Cayman Islands based law firm Walkers is pleased to have acted on the KAL ABS 1
transaction, the winning deal in the Securitisation category of the International Financial Law Review
(IFLR) Asian Awards for 2003. The awards were announced by IFLR at a ceremony held at the Ritz-
Carlton hotel in Hong Kong on 11 March 2004.

Walkers was the only offshore law firm to have acted on any of the winning transactions.

The IFLR Asian Securitisation Deal of the Year 2003 was KAL Japan ABS I, the issue of ¥27,000,000,000
Secured Floating Rate Notes due 2006, lead managed by Nomura International plc, and originated by Korean
Airlines. This was the first ever transaction to issue asset-backed securities denominated in Yen and the first
to securitise future flows in Japan. It was the biggest ticket receivables deal ever completed and the first to
securitise receivables from the International Air Transport Association's billing and payment unit - the global
system that handles air ticket purchases.

Both Walkers and Walkers SPV, the firm's licenced trust company acted on the transaction.

Other law firms involved in the deal included Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, Anderson Mori, Lee & Ko,
Shin & Kim, Woo Yun Kang Jeong & Han, Dillon Eustace, Clifford Chance, Blake Cassels & Graydon and
Jones Day.