The bank's shares climbed as it beat analysts' expectations despite facing a commercial real estate charge of $700m in Hong Kong. Chairman Brendan Nelson is confident of growth in Asia this year.

Co-investors in the take-private deal for the healthcare firm include 65 Equity Partners, the Employees Provident Fund and China’s Silk Road Fund.

Hong Kong-based Peng Yu is a specialist in private equity and M&A transactions.

Sherlyn Lau has joined with a team of 12 in Hong Kong to lead the law firm's Apac capital markets and corporate finance team.

Singapore's ST Telemedia Global Data Centres has 2.3GW of design capacity across 12 markets in Asia Pacific, the UK and Europe; it is the largest ever data centre deal in SEA.

Hong Kong payment platform Wonder has raised $12m in venture debt from HSBC Innovation Banking to accelerate its regional expansion.

The global law firm has promoted regional managing partner William Liu to drive regional strategy as it marks 50 years in the region.

Amid regional market momentum, the global bank has a strong pipeline of Apac deals across ECM, DCM and M&A.

Xu Qing, who has been at the bank for over a decade, will oversee all credit and risk functions in Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan.

Every year, FinanceAsia publishes a highly recognised benchmark of Asia's best companies, made by asking influential investors and analysts to nominate Asian companies that are leading in their sector.