London Stock Exchange building in St Paul's.Asia Deal Digest: September 2019
• Slaughter and May, Cravath on HKEX's $37 billion bid for LSE. • Skadden, Sullivan & Cromwell on Japanese recruitment giant's $3.3 billion secondary offering. • Norton Rose Fulbright, Allens on $1 billion Australia baby formula deal.
September 27, 2019 at 03:30 AM
4 minute read
Asia Deal Digest, published periodically, is a compilation of some of the largest deals carried out in Asia and Australia.
|China/Hong Kong
• Slaughter and May corporate partners David Watkins and Victoria MacDuff in London, and Peter Brien and Jing Chen in Hong Kong, are advising the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. on a $36.6 billion bid for the London Stock Exchange Group Plc. Chen rejoined Slaughter and May this year as a partner after a two-year stint at the HKEX. The offer was rejected by the LSE on September 13, but, according to media reports, HKEX is appealing directly to LSE shareholders and has until October 9 to make a formal offer. The Slaughter and May team also includes London partners Jan Putnis advising on financial regulatory matters, Lisa Wright on competition and foreign investment issues, Ed Fife and Harry Bacon on financing matters, Gareth Miles on tax matters, Charles Cameron on pension matters and Padraig Cronin on employment matters. Cravath, Swaine & Moore partners Richard Hall in New York and Philip Boeckman in London are serving as U.S. counsel for the HKEX. They are assisted by New York partner Christine Varney on antitrust matters.
• Belgian beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV has revived its plans to list its Asia business, Budweiser Brewing Co. APAC Ltd., in Hong Kong. The issuer priced to raise $5 billion, half the amount it was aiming to raise in its first attempt in July, which it cancelled due to unfavourable market conditions. Since June, Hong Kong has been shaken by anti-government protests. The new listing excludes its Australian business, which is being sold to Japanese brewer Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. for $11.3 billion, and adds Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC as a cornerstone investor. Sullivan & Cromwell partners Francis Aquila in New York, John Horsfield-Bradbury in London and Kay Ian Ng in Hong Kong and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partners Teresa Ko in Hong Kong, David Ludwick in London, Valerie Ford Jacob in New York and Vincent Macq in Brussels are advising Budweiser Brewing, while Clifford Chance partners Virginia Lee and Amy Lo in Hong Kong and Jean Thio in Singapore are representing the joint sponsors.* [Read Full Story]
• Freshfields Hong Kong partner Grace Huang and Singapore partner Arun Balasubramanian advised Chinese drugmaker Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc. on a $400 million listing in Hong Kong. Henlius was advised by Llinks Law Offices on Chinese law and Meridian Attorneys-at-Law on Taiwanese law. Henlius is a subsidiary of Shanghai-based conglomerate Fosun International and plans to use the majority of the proceeds to fund clinical trials. Sidley Austin Hong Kong partner Mengyu Lu and Singapore partner Matthew Sheridan advised CICC, Merrill Lynch, CMB, Fosun Hani Securities and Citigroup as the joint sponsors. Jia Yuan Law Offices Shanghai partner Chen Jie and Guangzhou partner Wu Jingqian advised the banks on Chinese law.
|Japan
• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Tokyo partner Kenji Taneda represented Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Recruit Holdings Co. Ltd., one of the largest staffing agencies in the world, on a $3.3 billion secondary offering. Mori Hamada & Matsumoto served as Japanese counsel to the issuer. Sullivan & Cromwell Tokyo partner Keiji Hatano advised Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Nomura, Mizuho, Goldman Sachs and SMBC Nikko Capital Markets as the underwriters. Anderson Mori & Tomotsune advised the banks on Japanese law. [Read Full Story]
• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Tokyo partner Takahiro Saito advised Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group Inc. on a $1.6 billion bond sale, which comprises $600 million in six-year-notes, $500 million in 11-year-notes and $500 million in four-year-notes, on the Singapore Exchange. Davis Polk & Wardwell Tokyo partner Jon Gray advised Mizuho Securities and Goldman Sachs as the underwriters.
|Australia
• Norton Rose Fulbright partners John Elliott and Belinda Harvey in Sydney and Psyche Tai and Peter Haslam in Hong Kong are advising Chinese dairy group China Mengniu Dairy Co. on a $1 billion acquisition of Australian baby formula maker Bellamy's Australia Ltd. The deal is expected to close in December, subject to approval by Bellamy's shareholders, the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the Foreign Investment Review Board. Allens Sydney partners Guy Alexander and Tom Story are advising Bellamy's. [Read Full Story]
*Updated Sept. 30: This story has been updated with the names of the partners advising on Budweiser Brewing's Hong Kong listing from Clifford Chance.
|Related Stories:
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
‘Are You Not Profiting From Postmasters’ Misery?’—Politicians Grill HSF, Dentons on Post Office Conduct
'Not a Good Look'—FCA Fines Barclays £40M But Accused of Incompetence
Gibson Dunn Sued by Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
Australian Corporations More Concerned About Class Actions Risk, HSF Report Finds
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1DOJ Asks 5th Circuit to Publish Opinion Upholding Gun Ban for Felon
- 2GEO Group Sued Over 2 Wrongful Deaths
- 3Revenue Up at Homegrown Texas Firms Through Q3, Though Demand Slipped Slightly
- 4Warner Bros. Accused of Misleading Investors on NBA Talks
- 5FTC Settles With Security Firm Over AI Claims Under Agency's Compliance Program
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
