Simpson Thacher recently represented Apax Partners (“Apax”) in connection with Apax IX Fund’s cornerstone investment in the initial public offering of Guotai Junan Securities Co., Ltd. (“Guotai Junan”) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Apax’s IX Fund subscribed for a total of 190,333,000 H shares with US$388 million, representing approximately (i) 16.64% of the H shares in issue upon the completion of the global offering (prior to exercise of the overallotment option) and (ii) 2.2% of the shares in issue upon the completion of the global offering (prior to exercise of the overallotment option). Apax IX Fund, as one of the six cornerstone investors to Guotai Junan, made its investment through Diamond AcquisitionCo SARL wholly owned by Diamond Holding SARL which is in turn beneficially owned by Apax IX Fund.
Guotai Junan is a long-term, consistent and across-the-board leader in China’s securities industry providing integrated financial services. Guotai Junan offered and sold an aggregate of 1,040,000,000 H shares before exercise of the overallotment option, which raised approximately HK$16.47 billion (US$2.12 billion) in gross proceeds.
The Simpson Thacher team included Celia Lam, Venus Lo and Tao Li (Corporate – Hong Kong); Ryerson Symons and Jennifer Nadborny (Corporate – New York); and Derek Baird, Seema Shah, Daniel Lloyd, Amin Ebrahim, Charles Leeming and Laura Kichenside (Corporate – London).