The dispute was between Softbank Corporation, Yahoo! Inc and the founder shareholders of the Alibaba Group over Alipay.com Co., Ltd. (“Alipay”), an electronic payment system in China.

The transfer of Alipay outside of Alibaba Group to a company controlled by Alibaba founder and CEO, Jack Ma was to ensure Alipay complied with Chinese regulations of restricting foreign companies’ ownership of e-payment corporations.

Under the agreement, Alibaba Group will receive between US$2 billion to US$6 billion from any future IPO or sale of Alipay, while continuing to participate in Alipay’s future financial performance. In addition, Alipay will continue to provide payment processing services to Alibaba Group and its subsidiaries, like TaoBao, China’s largest domestic e-commerce platform. The agreement will serve the interests of all stakeholders of the three parties, signifying an amicable resolution to a potentially contentious matter.

The Appleby team consisted of members from the Hong Kong and Cayman Islands offices, and spread across the corporate and commercial practice team and the litigation and insolvency practice team. In the Hong Kong office, Partners, Jeffrey Kirk and Judy Lee led the matter with assistance from Mark Cummings, Senior Associate and Victoria Chen, Associate. In the Cayman office, Partners, Stephen James and Andrew Bolton and Counsel, Tony Heaver-Wren, provided corporate and litigation advice.