News In Brief

King & Wood Mallesons to debut in March

Australian law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques and Chinese law firm King & Wood will merge to form King & Wood Mallesons. The combination will be effective as of March 1 2012 and is the first alliance between a Chinese and a Western law firm.

King & Wood Mallesons is set to become the largest law firm in Asia, with over 380 partners and 1800 lawyers. The firm's Hong Kong offices will utilise the verein structure to merge their partnerships.

Wang Junfeng, chairman of King & Wood, will become chairman of the new combined firm. Based in Hong Kong, Stuart Fuller will become global managing partner of the new firm.

PRC menswear maker debuts in Hong Kong

China Outfitters Holdings has raised HK$1.13 billion (US$145 million) from its initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Rule 144A/Regulation S global offering.

The issuer, a PRC-based menswear apparel company, plans to use the IPO proceeds for the licensing or acquisition of other international brands, logistics system enhancement, joint venture establishment and expansion.

Advising China Outfitters Holdings was a Hong Kong Herbert Smith team led by partners Tommy Tong, Jason Sung, Kevin Roy and Melody Chen. The issuer's PRC counsel and offshore counsel were Commerce & Finance Law Offices and Walkers, respectively. The underwriters were advised by Hogan Lovells as to Hong Kong and US law aspects, and their Chinese counsel was Jingtian & Gongcheng.

Nestlé majority owner in Chinese confectionary

The Ministry of Commerce has approved Nestlé's acquisition of a 60% share of China-based, Singapore-listed Hsu Fu Chi International for US$1.7 billion. The target is headquartered in Guangdong and operates four factories that manufacture confectionaries and snacks.

Hsu Fu Chi's shares are expected to be delisted at the end of this year after Nestlé purchases 43.5% of the stake from independent shareholders and 16.5% of the shares from the Taiwanese Hsu family, who retains the remaining 40%.

King & Wood Beijing-based partner Susan Ning was sole legal counsel to Nestlé in its anti-monopoly clearance strategy and review. Representing Nestlé was White & Case Beijing partner Vivian Tsoi and Singapore-based William Kirschner. Maples and Calder advised Nestlé on Cayman Islands Law. The Hsu family was counselled by Hong Kong-based Denis Jong of Reed Smith Richards Butler and Singapore firm Loos & Partners.

China insurer stars in the only A+H listing of 2011

PRC insurance company New China Life Insurance Company (New China Life) has completed a simultaneous A+H listing on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. This was the only A+H share listing in 2011 and it raised US$1.9 billion from the global offering.

The underwriters of the offering were China International Capital Corporation and UBS Securities.

Advising the issuer on Hong Kong law aspects was a multi-office Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer team led by Hong Kong partner Teresa Ko, London partner Stephen Revell and Beijing partner Richard Wang. Davis Polk & Wardwell represented New China Life as to US law aspects, with Commerce & Finance Law Firm serving as PRC counsel. King & Wood, led by partner Yang Xiaolei, and Slaughter and May's Benita Yu acted for the underwriters. US counsel to the underwriters was Sullivan & Cromwell.