Magic Circle law firm Linklaters has hired Roger Cheng as a partner from Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission, where he was head of the takeovers team. He will start at Linklaters in August.

With some two decades of experience, Cheng has expertise in public and private M&A and equity capital markets transactions including IPOs. At the SFC, Cheng oversaw the development of takeovers and mergers policy in Hong Kong and was involved in other policy initiatives within the SFC, including listing and post-listing regulations. Also, he represented the SFC in matters before the Takeovers and Mergers Panel.

Prior to joining the SFC in 2018, he was a partner at Slaughter and May.

Cheng becomes Linklaters’ third lateral partner hire in Asia this year. In May, it welcomed M&A lawyer Yoshiyuki Asaoka in Tokyo from Nishimura & Asahi, while in April, Shearman & Sterling finance partner Rahul Chatterji joined Linklaters in Singapore.

Cheng’s arrival will take the number of Linklaters Hong Kong partners to 31.