China Business Law Journal (CBLJ) has named Morrison & Foerster “Firm of the Year” in seven categories for its 2019 China Business Law Awards. This year’s awards deliver the highest number of recognitions the firm has received from CBLJ, as well as first-time wins for several practices.
Morrison & Foerster received “Firm of the Year” for the following categories:
- Dispute resolution 争议解决
- Fintech & blockchain 金融科技及区块链
- Healthcare, pharma & life sciences 医疗、制药及生命科学
- IT, telecom & e-commerce 信息技术、电信及电商
- Mergers & acquisitions 并购
- Private equity & venture capital 私募股权/风险投资
- Real estate & REIT 房地产投资及REIT基金
Each year, CBLJ receives recommendations and votes from various international corporate counsel, senior managers, and legal professionals. The firms submitted are evaluated on landmark deals, cases, and other notable achievements. In the past year, Morrison & Foerster’s team in China has worked on many high-profile matters, including:
- (HK Court of First Instance, Court of Appeal) American International Group, Inc. and AIG Capital Corporation v. Huaxia Life Insurance Co Ltd., HCCT 60/2015 (in the Court of First Instance), HCMP 3417/2016 (in the Court of Appeal) representing plaintiffs seeking to set aside an unfavorable US$500 million Hong Kong-seated ICC arbitration award
- Represented the licensing arm of a French multinational corporation as claimant in a Hong Kong law-governed, Hong Kong seated HKIAC arbitration with substantial PRC law-governed elements
- Representing a Chinese consumer products manufacturer as respondent in a Hong Kong law-governed, Hong Kong-seated ad hoc arbitration with substantial PRC law-governed elements and in subsequent enforcement proceedings in Hong Kong and Israel
- Representing a global industrial gases company as claimant in a PRC law-governed, Shanghai-seated, Chinese-language CIETAC arbitration
- Representing multiple Hong Kong and Chinese clients in high-stakes U.S. litigation proceedings, including civil and criminal trade-secret, and economic espionage, litigation and litigation alleging violation of U.S. state and federal securities laws
- Oriente, a Hong Kong-based financial services and technology company, in its US$105 million initial funding round, and a series of recent expansions in Southeast Asia, including two strategic alliances — Cashalo in the Philippines with JG Summit, and Finmas in Indonesia with Sinar Mas
- Ally Bridge Group in its equity investment in GRAIL, a company developing a blood test that will detect cancer before symptoms appear in order to increase survival rates as compared to those patients with late-stage diagnoses; the investment, led by our client, raised US$300 million in an oversubscribed Series C financing
- Trusted Doctors (Xingren) in its strategic merger agreement with Tencent Doctorwork. The newly formed venture, which is named Tencent Trusted Doctors, will offer an ecosystem of both online and offline services devoted to leveraging Internet technology to provide high-quality and accessible healthcare service to customers all over the country
- C-Bridge Capital’s portfolio company Everest Medicines II in its exclusive collaboration, license, and supply agreement with VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, to support the development and commercialization of cefepime/VNRX-5133 in Greater China, South Korea, and Southeast Asia
- Alibaba Group in the acquisition of a 33% stake of Ant Financial, operator of China’s biggest online payment platform by market share
- SoftBank Vision Fund in connection with a US$3 billion investment into Local Services Holding Company, a company established by Alibaba after consolidating the businesses of Ele.me (the food delivery business owned by Alibaba) and Koubei.com (an affiliate company that focuses on bringing local businesses online by providing payment and other technology services); after such consolidation, the valuation of Local Services Holding Company is over US$30 billion
- Walmart in a US$500 million financing and strategic alliance with New Dada, China’s largest localized on-demand logistics and grocery O2O e-commerce platform; the transaction included a US$320 million investment by Walmart and a new business cooperation agreement
- SoftBank Vision Fund in connection with an investment totaling US$1.5 billion in Chehaoduo, a leading Chinese customer-to-customer auto retail services company that operates Guazi, an e-commerce platform focusing on second-hand car transactions, and Maodou, an e-commerce platform focusing on new car transactions
- Alibaba Group in relation to Ant Financial’s US$14 billion Series C fundraising, valuing Ant Financial at approximately US$150 billion
- SoftBank in connection with the additional US$4.6 billion purchase of Didi shares
- SoftBank Vision Fund’s US$11 billion investment in WeWork
To view the full list of 2019 China Business Law Award recipients, visit: https://www.vantageasia.com/china-business-law-awards-2019/.