Benjamin Zhao started his practice since 1994. He focuses mainly on investment and financing related practice, including foreign direct investment, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, direct outbound investment, and financial services. Many of his clients are renowned enterprises, with whom Mr. Zhao keeps a long-term cooperation through his reliable professional services.

Mr. Zhao is engaged in a number of FDI projects. His practice covers: assisting overseas investors to establish representative offices, equity joint ventures, contractual joint ventures and wholly foreign owned enterprises in China, as well as providing advice and solutions from a legal prospective with regard to land, premises construction, equipment purchase, technology import, tax, foreign exchange, product export, domestic distribution of products, intellectual property protection, labour issues, and M&A during the establishment and running of enterprises.

Mr. Zhao has been engaged in a number of domestic and cross-border M&A deals. He has accumulated extensive experience in representing sellers or buyers in those deals and hence knows the needs, mentality and key legal points of the M&A deals from both sides. In recent years, he successfully represented a number of China listed companies in their acquisition of foreign companies. In January 2020, Mr. Zhao was selected as a recommended lawyer (for M&A) in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific guide.

Mr. Zhao has abundant experience in providing financing-related legal services for financial institutions as well as finance departments of enterprises. He has advised a member of KfW Banking Group (DEG) on its lending business in China for years and has acted as the legal signatory for all insurance products of a Sino-foreign insurance company for years, for the environment projects financed by the World Bank loan. Mr. Zhao has been the legal counsel of China Merchants Bank Credit Card Center and Shanghai Joying Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. for a long time.