International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Alibaba Group, the largest e-commerce company in China, on the financing of a major repurchase of shares from Yahoo! and on the restructuring of its relationship with Yahoo! in transactions valued at approximately US$7.6 billion.
Freshfields advised Alibaba Group on its senior debt package and the issuance of convertible preference and ordinary shares. The financing package is the largest private financing for a private sector Chinese company, and the largest ever non-LBO private financing for a technology company globally.
The senior debt was provided by a number of international banks and a Chinese policy bank.
The new preference shares and ordinary shares were placed with global institutional investors from Asia, Europe and the United States.
Earlier this year, Freshfields advised Alibaba Group on the privatisation of Alibaba.com Limited, a transaction valued at US$2.5 billion, including related financing.
Ken Martin, head of Freshfields’ China corporate practice, said, “We are delighted to have assisted Alibaba Group with this very important strategic transaction.”
The Freshfields team was led by Ken Martin and David Winfield, head of Freshfields’ Asia finance practice. They were supported by senior associates James Hyre and Jacqueline Wong and associates Steve Byun, Angus Lennox, Shuekai Liang and Meiping Zhao.
