Managing Partner
Tay Zi Li
Zi Li is the founding partner of Zi Li & Partners. Prior to founding the firm, he was the executive partner of ZICO Law Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh Office and partner of Zaid Ibrahim & Co, Malaysia. He was the youngest-made partner in the entire ZICO Law network at the age of 28.
He regularly advises on a wide range of cross border corporate and commercial transactions including joint venture projects, shareholders agreements, takeovers and mergers and foreign investments in various industries in Malaysia as well as in the South-east Asian region, particularly Vietnam.
Zi Li also has extensive experience in advising foreign and local sponsors, lenders, borrowers and issuers in banking transactions, project financing transactions and debt capital market transactions, both conventional and Islamic.
Zi Li has experience across the entire spectrum of start up/venture capital matters, from the setting up of employee incentive plans and preparation of data privacy matters to the raising of equity funding rounds and trade sales.
Having worked on many cross border and regional transactions, Zi Li heads up the foreign practices of Zi Li & Partners.
- Corporate Commercial and Regulatory Compliance
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Real Estate and Projects
- Start-Ups and Venture Capital
- LL.B. (Hons) University of Reading
- Certificate in Legal Practice, 2011; Tun Hamid Omar Book Prize winner for Best Overall Student for Certificate in Legal Practice
- Advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya, Malaysia (2012)
- Registered foreign lawyer in Vietnam since 2018
- English
- Mandarin
- Malay
- Who’s Who Legal Recommended (Project Finance) 2023
- Who’s Who Legal Recommended (Southeast Asia – Project Finance) 2023
- Who’s who Legal, Project Finance, Malaysia 2020, Vietnam 2021
- Winner – Client Service Excellence, Real Estate, Asialaw, 2021
- Rising Star – Real Estate, Asialaw Leading Lawyers, 2021
- Quoted on Chambers and Legal500 2020 for banking and real estate transactions
- Advised the largest banking institution of China and the first privately-owned bank in China in RMB1.68 billion project financing extended to SBH Kibing Solar New Material (M) Sdn Bhd for manufacturing of solar glass panel factory in Sabah, Malaysia. This investment is the largest outbound investment from the One Belt One Road Initiative of the Hunan Province in China for 2023.
- Advised Malayan Banking Berhad on its issuance of panda bonds in 2017 which marked the first Malaysian issuer in China and the first ever bonds that was traded through Bond Connect.
- Advised J Resources Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of the Indonesia public listed company in relation to its financing and corporate commercial matters.
- Advised AC Ventures, a leading SEA venture capital firm, in its investment and corporate commercial matters.
- Advising Hongkong Land Ltd., one of Asia’s leading property investment, management, and development groups, regarding a mixed-use project comprising luxury residences and boutique retail outlets in a prime location in the central district of Ho Chi Minh City.
- Advised eWTP, fund set up by Jack Ma, in their investments in the technology start-ups in Vietnam.