Shin & Kim was selected as the Standout Asia-Pacific Headquartered Law Firm in Innovation in Corporate and Commercial Law by the world-renowned daily economic newspaper Financial Times.

The Standout selection is a prestigious award given to a law firm that has completed transactions in corporate and commercial law areas in the most innovative fashion among those based in the Asia-Pacific region. Shin & Kim won the honor by scoring a total of 26 points with the highest point in each of all three categories of ‘Originality,’ ‘Rationale’ and ‘Impact’ among leading law firms not only from Korea but also from Japan and China. This award to Shin & Kim has greater meaning, given that this award is targeted on all law firms in the Asia-Pacific region, not only on Korean law firms.

The Financial Times said, “Shin & Kim was selected as our Standout Asia-Pacific Headquartered Law Firm in Innovation in Corporate and Commercial Law for its original solution for the successful privatization of Woori Financial Holdings.”

Shin & Kim said, “It is unprecedented in Korean M&A history that banks of a financial holding company is spun off and then remerged into it followed by its conversion into a bank to be sold. It was fully appreciated by the Financial Times that the privatization of Woori Financial Holdings was completed through such structure for the first time.” The privatization case was advised on by Woong-Soon Song, Byung-Tae Kim, Seong-Hoon Yi, Jae-Young Chang and Sang-Hyun Lee of Shin & Kim.

Shin & Kim also advised on a merger between Woori Financial Holdings and Woori Bank. This experience laid the foundation for the firm being engaged in the merger between Citibank Korea Financial Holdings and Citibank Korea and between Standard Chartered Bank Korea Financial Holdings and Standard Chartered Bank Korea, cementing its position as a leading law firm in advisory services on transactions of financial institutions.