Simpson Thacher recently won four Deal of the Year awards at the ALB China Law Awards 2015. The Firm received “Equity Market Deal of the Year,” “TMT Deal of the Year” and “China Deal of the Year” for its representation of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (“Alibaba Group”) in connection with its US$25 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Alibaba’s IPO was the largest IPO ever conducted and represented the largest market-cap company at the time of IPO ever. This transaction was also named “Securities Deal of the Year: Equity” at The Asian Lawyer’s Asia Legal Awards 2015, “Equity Deal of the Year” at the IFLR Asia Awards 2015, and “Deal of the Year” by Asian-Mena Counsel and China Business Law Journal in 2014. For more information about the transaction, please click here.
The Firm also received “Debt Market Deal of the Year” at the same ALB China Law Awards for its representation of Alibaba Group in connection with its debut offering of US$8 billion senior unsecured notes. For more information about the transaction, please click here.
In a separate legal awards run by the China Business Law Journal, Simpson Thacher was recognized with four “Deal of the Year” awards in 2014. In addition to the Alibaba IPO, the Firm also received “Deal of the Year” awards for its representation of Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store Co., Ltd. in connection with its acquisition of a majority stake in House of Fraser, its representation of the underwriters in connection with Trina Solar’s convertible preferred shares offering and its representation of Alibaba Group in connection with its US$1.22 billion investment in Youku Tudou. The Alibaba investment in Youku Tudou was also awarded the “Deal of the Year” by the Asian-Mena Counsel in 2014.
Furthermore, the Firm was recognized at the Asian-Mena Counsel 2014 Deals of the Year awards for its representation of KKR and Affinity Equity Partners in connection with the sale of Oriental Brewery to Anheuser-Busch InBev and for its representation of KKR in connection with its acquisition of Goodpack Limited, a Singapore-based company and the world's largest provider of multi-modal, reusable metal box systems known as intermediate bulk containers, which was also named “M&A Deal of the Year: Private Equity” at The Asian Lawyer’s Asia Legal Awards 2015. For more information about the transaction, please click here.
The Firm also received three Honorable Mentions from the Asian-Mena Counsel for our representation of KKR in its acquisition of a minority stake in Gland Pharma Limited (which was also awarded “Deal of the Year” by India Business Law Journal in 2014); our representation of Goldman Sachs, financial advisor to Applied Materials, in connection with the merger with Tokyo Electron; and our role in Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store’s acquisition of a majority stake in House of Fraser.