Skadden, Clifford Chance Advise on This Year's Largest Hong Kong Listing
Beijing-based venture capital boutique Shihui Partners and Han Kun Law Offices are advising on Chinese law.
June 16, 2020 at 12:12 PM
4 minute read
Silicon Valley offices of Chinese e-commerce company JD.com. Photo: Shutterstock.com
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Clifford Chance have the lead roles on JD.com's upcoming $3.9 billion secondary listing in Hong Kong.
The Chinese e-commerce company's debut in Hong Kong, scheduled for Thursday, is set to be the largest listing the city has seen so far this year. Beijing-based JD.com is expected to raise $3.88 billion to develop retail and logistics technologies and invest in research and development.
Led by founder and chief executive Richard Liu, JD.com operates one of China's most popular e-commerce sites and is a primary rival of Alibaba. The company is the second U.S.-listed Chinese company to seek a secondary Hong Kong listing this year; last week, Nasdaq-listed internet giant NetEase raised $2.7 billion in its Hong Kong debut.
Skadden Hong Kong partners Julie Gao, Christopher Betts, Paloma Wang and Shu Du are leading a team representing JD.com. Gao, Betts and Wang also worked on NetEase's listing last week. Gao, a prominent dealmaker who leads Skadden's China practice, also advised the company 2014 Nasdaq initial public offering, which raised $1.8 billion.
Beijing-based boutique firm Shihui Partners is Chinese counsel to the issuer while Maples and Calder advised on Cayman Islands law.
Clifford Chance is acting for joint sponsors Merrill Lynch Far East Ltd., UBS Securities Hong Kong Ltd. and CLSA Capital Markets Ltd. and other underwriters; the team is led by Beijing partner Tim Wang and Hong Kong partners Fang Liu and Christine Xu.*
Han Kun Law Offices Beijing partners Charles Li, Wang Jin and Tracy Zhou are Chinese counsel to the banks.
JD.com and NetEast are only two of the many U.S.-listed Chinese companies that are seeking secondary listings in Hong Kong. The wave, started last year with the $12.9 billion Hong Kong listing of Alibaba Group Holding, initially allowed U.S.-listed Chinese companies to also tap the Hong Kong market. But as U.S. regulators move to delist Chinese companies from U.S. exchanges, Hong Kong is quickly becoming an alternative listing venue for these companies. In addition to the three companies that completed their Hong Kong listings, more have reportedly started the process. So far, companies including Pinduoduo, another ecommerce site, and internet giant Baidu, have been reportedly preparing for Hong Kong listings.
In addition, Chinese issuers continue to push for U.S. listings despite the potential regulatory hurdles. A dozen Chinese companies have completed U.S. listings so far this year. Among the latest was Burning Rock Biotech, a Guangzhou-based cancer treatment company backed by Sequoia Capital, which listed on Nasdaq and raised $223 million June 12.
Burning Rock was represented by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Hong Kong partner Shuang Zhao and London partner Sebastian Sperber.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Hong Kong partners Chris Lin and Daniel Fertig acted for underwriters including Morgan Stanley & Co., BofA Securities Inc. and Cowen and Co. Shihui Partners and Jingtian & Gongcheng were Chinese counsel to the issuer and the underwriters, respectively.
*Updated 6/18: This story has been updated with Clifford Chance's lead partners on JD.com's listing.
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