Natixis & Vermilion

Natixis is a French multinational financial services firm specialized in asset & wealth management, corporate & investment banking, insurance and payments. A subsidiary of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France through its two retail banking networks, Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne, Natixis counts nearly 16,000 employees across 38 countries. Its clients include corporations, financial institutions, sovereign and supranational organizations, and the customers of Groupe BPCE’s networks.

www.cib.natixis.com

Vermilion Partners is an investment banking advisory business focused on China. Founded in 2004, it offers cross-border and domestic transaction advice to leading multinational and Chinese companies. Vermilion operates from offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, London and Munich. It became an affiliate of Natixis in 2018 and forms part of a global M&A team of over 250 professionals.

www.vermilion-partners.com

Clifford Chance

We are one of the world's pre-eminent law firms, with significant depth and range of resources across five continents. As a single, fully integrated, global partnership, we pride ourselves on our approachable, collegial and team-based way of working.

We always strive to exceed the expectations of our clients, which include corporates from all the commercial and industrial sectors, governments, regulators, trade bodies and not-for-profit organisations. We provide them with the highest-quality advice and legal insight, which combines the Firm's global standards with in-depth local expertise.

Our global network, including offices in London, New York, Dubai and across our Asia Pacific network allows us to help our clients anywhere in the world. Our approach highlights our focus on offering a fully integrated service advising on domestic and international law. Our extensive track record, solutions oriented approach and reputation for executing complex transactions with adaptable teams are the features that make Clifford Chance one of the leading international law firms in Asia Pacific and globally.

We regularly advise many of the leading private equity investors (including real estate, buyout firms, hedge funds and the principal investment and private equity arms of investment banks) and companies raising financing.

We have a very deep bench of private equity specialists based in Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo who are either local or have been in Asia for many years.

Cooley

Cooley LLP is an international law firm representing clients in a wide range of industries from our offices in Asia, Europe and the United States. With more than 1100 lawyers, Cooley has the range and expertise to serve clients of all sizes to seize opportunities in today's global marketplace.

Our dedication to China's fund industry is unparalleled and unrivaled by any other law firm. Cooley has been advising on China-related matters over three decades, dating back to 1989, when the firm advised on the formation of the first institutional venture capital fund investing in China. Today, we are counsel to more than 500 private investment fund organizations worldwide, including more than 80 fund managers with their primary operations in China and numerous other managers outside of the PRC making investments in portfolio companies in China. We form considerably more dollar-denominated China venture capital and growth equity funds in dollar terms than any other law firm worldwide. We have a team of more than 40 specialist fund formation lawyers and dozens of other practitioners dedicated to serving our clients headquartered and doing business in China. Multiple members of our team are Mandarin-speaking, Chinese native fund formation specialists who assist our China funds clients and their investors in both USD and RMB fund formation matters. In Asia, Cooley has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, and works closely with Cooley’s United States and European offices to serve fund clients worldwide.

As a full service global law firm, we regularly assist our China fund clients and their portfolio companies with complex mergers, acquisitions and disposition transactions, a wide variety of private financing and capital markets transactions, public company disclosure issues, share distributions, local and cross-border intellectual property issues, licensing transactions, joint ventures, as well as supply and distribution arrangements, among other matters.

Davis Polk

Perennially ranked as one of the world’s top advisers on mergers and acquisitions transactions, Davis Polk regularly counsels companies across all major industries throughout Asia, as well as those venturing into the region, on acquisitions, sales, strategic investments and joint ventures.

While we have long been a go-to adviser on large and complex cross-border M&A transactions in Asia, in recent years we have increased the size and scope of our M&A practice in our Asian offices, building upon our local experience and knowledge as well as our substantial global platform. This added capacity has enabled us to work with an even broader array of clients in China, Japan, India and across the Asia Pacific region, ranging from industry-leading multinationals as they expand their regional and global footprint to smaller, emerging companies seeking to position themselves as future market leaders. Our preeminent expertise in specialized areas that are increasingly important to our clients and that bolsters our M&A transaction capabilities, including Antitrust & Competition; FCPA; CFIUS; Privacy; and Enforcement & Investigations. 

Our private equity lawyers in Asia assist a diverse group of private equity firms, large sponsors affiliated with financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds, leading LP investors, secondary investors and venture capital firms in making acquisitions and dispositions for their own accounts and for the accounts of funds that they sponsor. We have advised a number of clients worldwide on the formation of Asia-focused private equity funds and other investment vehicles, and regularly work with sponsors and portfolio companies on acquisitions and dispositions in China, India, Japan and elsewhere across Asia. 

Our experience covers the entire private equity spectrum. Our vast experience advising private equity firms, fund investors and portfolio companies across all sectors of the global economy gives us an in-depth understanding of trends and expectations within the marketplace.

Steptoe & Johnson

Steptoe & Johnson is an international law firm recognized for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions.

Our Asia-Pacific practice, with offices in Beijing and Hong Kong is adept at helping clients do business in the region and helping companies within the Asia-Pacific region conduct their business internationally. We advise clients on international regulatory compliance, US and EU trade remedies proceedings, CFIUS, intellectual property, cybersecurity and data privacy, corporate governance, structuring investments and market access, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, economic sanctions, and export controls.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Founded in 1931, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP has been a preeminent provider of legal services for more than 80 years.  With offices on three continents, Weil has been a pioneer in establishing a geographic footprint that has allowed the Firm to partner with clients wherever they do business.

Since Weil opened its Hong Kong office over 13 years ago, our Hong Kong practice has focused exclusively on complex private equity and M&A mandates.  With a team of more than 20 dedicated private equity and M&A specialists in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, we work with our on-the-ground finance team to cover the full life cycle of investments – from acquisitions to exits, financing to management.

As one of the first-movers in the private equity space globally, we are consistently ranked as a market leader in this field. We understand the market, the players and the issues.  We support clients – in real time and in local languages – to execute their regional investment strategies. Our unparalleled experience in working with global and Asia-based private equity funds, pension funds and large corporates makes us the destination practice for high-profile, cross-border transactions of all types, across all sectors and deal sizes.