Sullivan & Cromwell > Hong Kong, Hong Kong > Firm Profile

Sullivan & Cromwell > Firm Profile

The firm: S&C’s Hong Kong office opened in 1992. S&C’s Hong Kong and Beijing lawyers work as one team to provide US, Hong Kong and English law advice to clients in Greater China and the Asia-Pacific region. Work in the Hong Kong office is focused on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, corporate finance, private equity and project development and finance.

Areas of practice
Capital markets: S&C is involved in more debt and equity offerings by non-US issuers than any other firm, as measured by the aggregate value and the total number of SEC-registered and Rule 144A offerings, as reported by Thomson Reuters. The firm has been involved in five of the ten largest IPOs of all time, among which are Greater China issuers Alibaba Group, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and AIA Group, advising either the issuer, underwriters, selling shareholders or investors. S&C’s China team has advised on numerous ground-breaking capital markets transactions, including the largest ever US IPO, the largest ever IPO by a technology company, and the largest IPO ever globally (Alibaba Group); the first Hong Kong and NYSE listings of a Chinese telecommunications company (China Mobile); the first Hong Kong IPO of a reinsurance company (China Reinsurance); the first Chinese company with a primary listing on the NYSE (Shandong Huaneng Power Development); the first ever H Shares offering in Hong Kong by a Chinese company (Tsingtao Brewery).

Mergers and acquisitions/private equity: S&C has advised principals and financial advisers on a greater value of M&A transactions in the Asia region than any other US-based firms from 2007 to 2016, according to Thomson One. Recent representative transactions include advising ACE Investment Fund in its acquisition of assets owed by EDP’s Italian and Polish wind farm project companies; Alibaba Group in its acquisition of a controlling stake in Lazada Group S.A. and Alibaba’s subsequent acquisition, through a put/call mechanism, of most of the remaining minority shareholder interests in Lazada; Anheuser-Busch InBev in its sale of SABMiller plc’s 49% interest in China Resources Snow Breweries to China Resources Beer; C.banner International in its acquisition of 45.78% of the issued share capital of EtonKids Educational Group Limited; China Mengniu Dairy in its mandatory cash offer for China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd; CIC Capital Corporation, as a member of a consortium, in its acquisition of a 90% ownership interest in Nova Transportadora do Sudeste S.A.; Daesung Group Partners Co, Ltd, Atinum Partners and Blue Run in their sale of the entire outstanding share capital of Daesung Industrial Gases Co, Ltd; J.P. Morgan as financial adviser to Orient Overseas (International) Limited in the acquisition of all its issued shares by COSCO Shipping Holdings and Shanghai Port (Group); Nirvana Asia in its privatisation by CVC Capital Partners; State Grid Corporation of China in its acquisition of a stake in CPFL Energia S.A.; Taiwan Cement Corporation and TCC International Limited in their privatisation of TCC International Holdings Limited.

Project development and finance: S&C’s project development and finance practice is widely noted for representing sponsor/borrowers and lenders on transformative project finance transactions across the globe, often with a complex cross-border element. S&C’s practice is characterised by regularly advising on the ‘first of’ or the ‘largest’ project in a country or region.

With the addition of Jamie Logie and other new project finance specialists in S&C’s Hong Kong and Beijing offices in early 2017, the firm is now better placed than ever to provide an exceptional service to its clients in Asia Pacific on their most significant projects and transactions globally. The firm’s experience in the Asia-Pacific region stands head and shoulders above other international law firms of the same calibre, including the largest ever mine project financing in an emerging market (Oyu Tolgoi); the first coal seam gas LNG project to achieve financial close (APLNG); the largest ever project financing as of 2012 (PNG LNG); the largest high-yield project bond offering by an Australian issuer (Fortescue Iron); the first NYSE listed power project in China (Shandong Huaneng); the only Indonesian project financing to close following the onset of the Indonesian crisis in 1997 (Batu Hijau).