Yuval Tal is the head of our Hong Kong and Beijing offices and a partner in our Corporate Department. He also co-heads our internationally recognized Lodging & Gaming Group. He is a general corporate and securities lawyer with diverse experience in cross-border mergers & acquisitions, long-term joint ventures, securities offerings, private equity real estate and corporate and real estate finance.
He advises clients on the full range of their activities including any form of financing, operational matters, commercial transactions, employment, consulting arrangements and equity incentive programs. He advises sponsors and funds on the structuring, execution, entering into, restructuring and exiting of investments.
Qualified in Hong Kong and New York, Yuval regularly represents Asian clients and clients based outside of Asia in inbound and outbound transactions, in Asia, the United States, Europe and Australia. Yuval has worked in various industries including real estate, hospitality, entertainment, financial services, technology and life sciences.
As co-head of our Lodging & Gaming Group and a member of the Private Equity Real Estate Group, Yuval has worked on transactions involving mixed-use development and construction, acquisition and sale, restructuring and public offerings of real estate, hotel and casino companies.
His real estate and hospitality work has included transactions for properties from China to India to the United States to Australia. He has many years of experience with hotel licensing, franchising and management and has developed a particular expertise in representing clients in buying, selling and combining Asian and Western based hotel operating companies, including AccorHotels’ [EPA:AC] long-term alliance with Huazhu Hotels Group (also known as China Lodging Group [Nasdaq: HTHT]), Accor’s strategic partnership with Singapore-based Banyan Tree Holdings [SGX:B58], and Formosa International Hotels’ sale and resulting joint venture with Intercontinental Hotels Group with respect to the Regent brand. Yuval also represented AccorHotels in its US$2.9 billion acquisition of Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel brands.
He has worked on projects involving Accor, Caesar’s/Harrah’s, Colony Capital, Garret Group, Hilton, Hyatt, Inter-Continental, Raffles, Starwood Capital, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Swissotel, Radisson, Wyndham and many others.
Yuval’s broader Private Equity Real Estate experience includes working on The Recording Academy’s (The Grammys) deal to develop Grammy Museums in China, a public/private deal to finance an office building in Delhi, India; the acquisition of hotels in Bangkok by a large Japanese institutional investor and a joint venture between a Hong Kong developer and private equity fund for the acquisition and redevelopment of a property in Kowloon into a mixed use property including co-living and co-working properties.
He has also helped many Asian based investors in transactions to acquire equity or debt positions in hotels and mixed use developments in the United States. Yuval is a member of the Steering Committee of the Asian Hospitality Development Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He is also a regular speaker at real estate and hospitality related conferences such as the Hotel Investment Conference Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong.
He is recognized by Legal 500, Chambers Asia Pacific and IFLR1000, where clients described him as having “[the] ability to think seven moves ahead of competition”.
Clients also appreciate his “ability to play the honest broker to all parties involved, and to bridge the different cultures, legal systems and language barriers and to continually solve the unsolvable, is what allowed us to get this difficult deal done”, adding: “he was completely invested in the deal in a way lawyers seldom are, and his creativity and efforts allowed us to bridge considerable gaps between the parties and find common ground.”
Yuval has represented clients including JPMorgan, Jefferies, Credit-Suisse, RRJ Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, One Equity Partners, PAG, SC Lowy, Starwood Capital, Colony Capital, DLJ, Thor Urban Retail Fund, Big Flower, Star Ventures, Formula Ventures and Giza Venture Capital in structuring, restructuring, managing and disposing of investments in Asia, Europe and the United States.
Prior to rejoining Proskauer in 1999, Yuval practiced law in Israel, representing Israeli clients in transactions in Europe and the United States and European and U.S.-based clients in transactions in Israel. He handled transactions for major publicly traded Israeli companies such as Clal (Israel) Ltd., LifeWatch, Kitan Consolidated Ltd., Orckit Communications Ltd., ECI Telecom Ltd., Scitex Corporation Ltd. and Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. Since joining Proskauer, Yuval has continued to represent Israeli clients on a wide range of corporate and securities matters.
Education :
- University of Chicago Law School, J.S.D., 1997
- University of Chicago Law School, LL.M., 1995
- Hebrew University Faculty of Law, LL.B., 1993
Admissions & Qualifications : Hong Kong, New York
Clerkships : Supreme Court of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel – Chief Justice Meir Shamgar
Memberships : New York City Bar (Secretary of Committee on Hotels and Tourism)
Cost
Rate : $$$
