Biography
Alain Charles Veloso is a partner and assistant head of Quisumbing Torres' Corporate & Commercial/M&A Practice Group. He heads the firm's Capital Markets Practice Group and the Financial Institutions Industry Group. He is also a member of the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry Group. He participates in the initiatives of Baker McKenzie International of which Quisumbing Torres is a member firm. He is a member of Baker McKenzie's Asia Pacific Competition Steering Committee. He has 17 years of legal practice, advising clients with regard to their transactions in the Philippines, including private and public M&A transactions, financing, and equity capital markets transactions.
Charles is also active in the firm's Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. He heads the firm's Inclusion, Diversity & Equity, and B-Green committees. He is currently a Director of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Makati Chapter, and currently serves as the Chairperson of its Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and Legal Education Committee.
Charles is recognized as Leading Individual for Capital Markets in 2020 to 2024, and Antitrust and Competition in 2024 by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific. He was also cited as one of the leading competition lawyers by Who's Who Legal: Southeast Asia 2022 to 2023 - Competition edition, and WWL’s Future Leader for Competition in 2022 to 2023. He was awarded Client Choice Awards for Competition by Lexology 2021 and 2022, and Young Lawyer of the Year by Asian Legal Business Philippine Law Awards 2020. The Asian-MENA In-House Community Counsels cited him as External Counsel of the Year in Asia by in 2019, and he was ranked as a Next Generation Lawyer for Corporate and M&A by Legal 500 Asia Pacific for 2017 and 2018. He was also a 2018 Bench and Bar Awardee of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines' Leyte Chapter.
Charles studied Law at the UP College of Law (cum laude and class valedictorian) and EU Competition Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2017. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Practice Focus
Charles has represented various companies engaged in the energy, power generation, infrastructure, mining and natural resources, real estate and construction, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, retail and distribution, manufacturing, business process outsourcing, information technology and telecommunications, fintech, and advertising industries. He has assisted several multinational companies in connection with the set-up, structuring, and maintenance of their Philippine operations, including advising them on legal and regulatory issues, contract review, and negotiation of joint venture agreements with local partners. He also handles the registration of companies with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other government agencies. Charles also handles the review and implementation of stock-based incentives of several multinational corporations with presence in the Philippines. He also handles corporate maintenance for a publicly-listed company, and companies with secondary licenses.
Representative Legal Matters
- Advise TA Associates on the Philippine aspect of its majority investment into InCorp Global.
- Assist a leading paper manufacturer in the Philippines in the acquisition of its shares by a Japanese conglomerate which involved a significant investment in the client's business and operations in the Philippines.
- Advise one of the world’s biggest pension funds that controls assets worth USD 300 billion in connection with its subscription of shares in the country's oldest conglomerate. Completed the transaction which involved the subscription of newly issued shares and the listing of the shares in the Philippine Stock Exchange.
- Assist an international development finance institution in a disaster risk financing project in the Philippines that involves the creation of a parametric insurance pool for cities, which is the first of its kind in the world.
- Assist a regional development bank in connection with the assessment and preparation of future water and sewerage contracts in Metro Manila
- Advise one of the biggest investment banks in the region, on the sale of its shares in a publicly-listed mining company.
- Advise a Taiwanese conglomerate engaged in polyester and textile industry in connection with the procedure, requirements, and tax implications for the restructuring of its debts and mortgage arrangements in the Philippines.
- Advise and assist a Chinese state-owned electric utility corporation, who owns shares in a joint venture corporation which operates the national transmission grid on potential public offering of shares and corporate governance matters.
- Advise and assist a foreign transportation company in responding to a subpoena relating to an investigation on potential cartel case.
- Advise Asia's leading healthcare services provider on various competition law matters and assistance with interviews with the Philippine Competition Commission in relation to pending merger investigations and competition impact assessment of the Cheaper Medicines Act (CMA) and Universal Healthcare Act (UHC).
Professional Honors
Leading Individual for Antitrust and Competition, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, 2024
Leading Individual for Capital Markets, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, 2020 to 2023
Recommended, Who's Who Legal Southeast Asia-Competition, 2022 to 2023
Future Leader, Who's Who Legal Competition Future Leaders - Partners, 2022 to 2023
Awardee, Client Choice Awards for Competition, Lexology, 2021 to 2022
Finalist, Young Lawyer of the Year, Asian Legal Business Southeast Asia Law Awards, 2020
Young Lawyer of the Year, ALB Philippine Law Awards, 2019
External Counsel of the Year - Asia, Asian-mena In-house Community Counsel Survey, 2019
Next Generation Lawyer for Corporate and M&A, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, 2017 to 2018
Professional Associations and Memberships
Philippine Chamber of Commerce, Inc (PCCI)
Integrated Bar of the Philippines - Auditor and Chairperson of the Legal Education Committee, Makati Chapter
International Bar Association
Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) - Committee member
Admissions
Philippines (2007, top 10)
Certified Public Accountant (2006)
Education
The London School of Economics and Political Science (EU Competition Law, highest grade) (2017)
University of the Philippines, College of Law (LL.B., cum laude and class valedictorian, Dean's Medal for Academic Excellence) (2006)
University of the Philippines (B.S. Accountancy, cum laude and batch salutatorian) (2001)
Languages
English
Filipino