Financing space assets has many of the hallmarks of financing traditional aircraft and related assets. However, it does operate in its own unique environment, with its own significant opportunities and pitfalls.

The Hong Kong licensing regime for virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) (VATP regime) has moved into the “deemed-to-be-licensed” phase. This alert provides the key details of this phase and the key implications.

10 May 2024 marked a significant legal turning point on the enforcement of keepwell deeds as the Hong Kong Court of Appeal (the “CA”) overturned the judgment handed down by Justice Harris in the Hong Kong Court of First Instance (the “CFI”) in May 2023 on the Peking Founder case (the “CFI Judgment”) , which was the first time enforceability of keepwell deeds was subject to scrutiny in a Hong Kong court . The CA overturned the decision in the CFI Judgment which had dismissed the claims of three of the four plaintiffs and granted declaratory relief in an amount of approximately US$1.7 billion to those three plaintiffs (the “CA Judgment”) . This is a significant development for offshore creditors in cross-border financing who rely on, or are concerned with, the enforceability of keepwell deeds.