Continued interest in European assets by Chinese investors peaked last month, as Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Davis Polk & Wardwell landed key roles on China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina)’s $43bn bid for Swiss seeds and pesticides group Syngenta – in what will be the largest-ever acquisition by a Chinese firm.
Simpson Thacher advised state-owned ChemChina on M&A, acquisition finance and regulation with a team led by partners Alan Klein, Shaolin Luo, Chris May and Sinead O’Shea, alongside Swiss corporate leader Homburger. Davis Polk and another top-tier Swiss player, Bär & Karrer, acted for Syngenta. Davis Polk’s team included partners Louis Goldberg and Oliver Smith, with John Reynolds providing regulatory advice; Ronan Harty and Jon Leibowitz advising on competition law; and Avishai Shachar advising on tax.
HSBC arranged the debt financing for the deal, with advice from a Linklaters team led by London banking partner Brian Gray. Clifford Chance advised China CITIC Bank, which acted as financial adviser to ChemChina for its proposed acquisition with finance partner Maggie Lo in Hong Kong leading a team.
Dentons’ London-based corporate partner Richard Barham said Chinese interest in Europe will mean continued healthy levels of transactional activity across sectors. ‘There’s a level of sophistication and quality in manufacturing businesses in countries like Germany and they see them as attractive acquisitions, similarly with distressed assets in real estate.
‘Despite what is happening in the global economy and the Chinese stock market there is a decent amount of activity.’
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
For more on China’s interest in Swiss corporates, see ‘Red dragon, white cross‘