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Simpson Thacher recently represented Alibaba Group Holding Limited (“Alibaba Group”) in connection with the monetization by SoftBank Group Corp. (“SBG”) of a portion of the shares of Alibaba Group held by SB China Holdings Pte. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of SBG. These transactions included an approximately $6.6 billion offering by a trust established by SBG of Mandatory Exchangeable Trust Securities which are exchangeable into American Depositary Shares of Alibaba Group to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act, as well as the purchase by Alibaba Group from SBG of approximately $2 billion in Alibaba Group ordinary shares. In addition to Alibaba Group’s purchase of shares, SBG also completed private placements of Alibaba Group ordinary shares to members of the Alibaba Partnership (acting collectively) for approximately $400 million, and to two private investors, each for approximately $500 million.

Alibaba Group's mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume. Founded in 1999, the company provides the fundamental technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help businesses leverage the power of the Internet to establish an online presence and conduct commerce and engage with hundreds of millions of consumers and other businesses.

The Simpson Thacher team for the transactions included William Hinman, Daniel Fertig, Kelli Schultz and Brian Mathes (Capital Markets).