Allen & Overy (A&O) has made a rare partner hire from magic circle rival Clifford Chance (CC) by taking a banking partner from the firm's Singapore office.

Kayal Sachi, a banking partner with experience in project finance, acquisition finance and telecoms finance, started on Wednesday (2 April) after 15 years at CC in both London and Singapore as the office's 26th partner.

Sachi, who became a partner in 1997, is qualified in both Singapore and UK law and has advised on a number of local financing projects including the C2C submarine cable financing, the SembCogen merchant power plant financing and the acquisition financing for Singtel's purchase of Optus Australia.

Andrew Trahair, joint managing partner of A&O Shook Lin & Bok in Singapore, said: "Kayal is a high profile banking lawyer with a very strong background in project, telecoms and acquisition finance."

Clients of the joint venture include Credit Suisse First Boston, Chase Manhattan, Merrill Lynch Singapore, HSBC, BT, CNOOC and Shell.

The news follows on from the launch of CC's long-delayed local joint venture with WongPartnership, which went live in January.

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