Practice areas

Aviation; Banking & finance; Restructuring & insolvency

Introduction

Simon Wong specialises in aircraft financing, leasing and trading relating to both commercial aircraft and business jets. He also handles aviation joint ventures, aviation funds, aircraft repossession and airline insolvency and rehabilitation. Wong’s main clients are international aircraft lessors and financiers in the PRC, in Hong Kong and in Europe.

Wong is a partner at Stephenson Harwood Hong Kong office, specialising in aviation law and asset finance. He has advised financiers, lessors, airlines and aircraft owners on various types of aircraft financing transactions (including syndicated loans, pre-delivery financing, off-balance sheet financing and ECA financing); cross-border leasing transactions (including operating leases, finance leases, sale and leasebacks, tax-based leases and domestic PRC operating leases utilising the Tianjin SPV structure); commercial aircraft fleet acquisition projects; aviation joint ventures; establishment of new airlines; aviation funds; lease restructuring; aircraft repossession; and airline insolvency and rehabilitation.

He recently advised international lessors and banks in relation to airline defaults and insolvencies in 11 jurisdictions during Covid-19. He has acted for a policy bank in China in a financing transaction involving eight aircraft on-leased to six airlines across the globe. He also advised a major aircraft lessor in the establishment of an offshore leasing platform and the acquisition of its aircraft portfolio.

Wong acts for some of the most active aircraft lessors in China in cross-border aircraft leasing and financing transactions. These transactions involved complex negotiations when looking at it from a commercial, engineering and legal perspective. On the business jet side, Wong mainly acts for financiers but also for many operators and aircraft owners in the region.

Wong is also regularly interviewed by industry leading journals for his views on the aviation market.

Wong has a PhD in law from the University of Hong Kong and a master’s degree in law from Stanford University. He is trilingual and speaks fluent Mandarin, Cantonese and English.

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