LAWYER PROFILE

Celia Zhou

Greater China Region 2026

Freshfields

Ranked in 2 practice areas

Banking & Finance: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)

China

4 years ranked

Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)

China

2 years ranked

About

Provided by Freshfields

Practice Areas

Celia is a counsel in our Global Transactions group. Her practice focuses on global and regional private equity clients and corporate clients on leveraged financings, share backed financings and corporate loans across the credit spectrum.

Work Highlights

- Advising corporate clients on a number of high-profile syndicated loan transactions, including Alibaba on its US$4bn term loan and US$6.5bn revolving facility and ESR on a series of sustainability-linked loans.

- Advising Permira, Advent, FountainVest, Affinity and other international and regional private equity funds on a number of leveraged buy-outs, refinancings, pre and post IPO margin loans and other share-backed financings, as well as well as corporate loans of their portfolio companies.

- Advising Chinese investors on outbound acquisition financing, including advising Midea on the €4.1bn financing for its acquisition of Kuka and a consortium led by ANTA and FountainVest on the €4.2bn financing for its acquisition of Amer Sports.

Education

University of Hong Kong

LL.B., Law

University of Hong Kong

BBA, Law

Chambers Review

Provided by Chambers

Chambers Greater China Region

Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms) - China

Up and Coming

Individual Editorial

Celia Zhou is a counsel in Freshfields' finance department. She focuses on assisting borrowers, including corporates and private equity firms, with leveraged financing and investment-grade loan transactions.

Learn more about this team View ranking table

Banking & Finance: Hong Kong-based (International Firms) - China

Up and Coming

Individual Editorial

View ranking table

Strengths

Provided by Chambers

She is an all-rounder and a capable banking and finance lawyer.
Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)Chambers Greater China Region
Celia is pretty efficient and I would say that, she would try to keep things very clear when coming back to me.
Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)Chambers Greater China Region
Celia has provided work that makes me very satisfied. Her strength is that she is able to use Mandarin to communicate with us.
Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)Chambers Greater China Region

Ranked Individuals at Freshfields (28)

China

Daniel French
Banking & Finance: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)
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Celia Zhou
Banking & Finance: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)
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Daniel French
Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)
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Celia Zhou
Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)
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Gautam Agarwal
Banking & Finance: Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (International Firms)
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Bing Guan
Capital Markets: Debt (International Firms)
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Grace Huang
Capital Markets: Equity (International Firms)
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Richard Wang
Capital Markets: Equity (International Firms)
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Howie Farn
Capital Markets: Equity (International Firms)
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David Yi
Capital Markets: Equity (International Firms)
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Ninette Dodoo
Competition/Antitrust (International Firms)
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Xin Liu
Corporate Investigations/Anti-Corruption (International Firms)
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Robert Ashworth
Corporate/M&A: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)
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Edward Freeman
Corporate/M&A: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)
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Alan Wang
Corporate/M&A: Mainland China-based (International Firms)
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Yuxin Shen
Corporate/M&A: Mainland China-based (International Firms)
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John Choong
Dispute Resolution: Arbitration (International Firms)
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Xin Liu
Dispute Resolution: Arbitration (International Firms)
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Stephanie Chiu
Employment: Hong Kong-based (International Firms)
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Tim Mak
Financial Services: Contentious Regulatory (International Firms)
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Matthew O'Callaghan
Financial Services: Non-contentious Regulatory (International Firms)
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Tim Mak
Financial Services: Non-contentious Regulatory (International Firms)
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Richard Bird
Intellectual Property (International Firms)
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Ya Ma
Life Sciences (International Firms)
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Edward Freeman
Private Equity: Buyouts & Venture Capital Investment (International Firms)
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