Sonya Ho

Sonya Ho is Counsel based in the Firm’s Tokyo office. Sonya advises corporate, private equity and other clients in connection with a variety of complex cross-border transactions, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, PIPE transactions, minority and strategic investments and other corporate matters. She represents clients in a variety of industries, including technology, financial services, healthcare, consumer products, media, entertainment and industrials.

Sonya’s representative experience includes advising:

• Blackstone in its $2.3 billion acquisition of Takeda Consumer Healthcare Company Limited and subsequent sale of Alinamin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to MBK Partners
• Blackstone in additional transactions, including its tender offer to acquire Infocom Corporation; its acquisition of a majority stake in Sony Payment Services Inc. from Sony Bank, Inc.; its acquisition of a controlling stake in Mphasis Limited; and its acquisition of a majority stake in Essel Propack Limited
• KKR in multiple transactions, including its investment in Advanta Enterprises Limited; its acquisition of a controlling stake in B. Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd.; its investment in Masan Group Corporation and Masan Nutri-Science; its sale of AlphaTheta Corporation (formerly Pioneer DJ Corporation) to Noritsu Koki Co., Ltd.; and its acquisition of Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc.
• SoftBank in its $11.5 billion joint tender offer with NAVER for LINE Corporation’s common shares and LINE’s related $30 billion business combination with Z Holdings (the parent company of Yahoo! Japan)
• Ant Financial in multiple strategic transactions in the fintech and e-commerce sectors, including in Hong Kong (Alipay HK), Bangladesh (bKash) and Pakistan (Telenor Microfinance Bank)
• Alibaba Group in multiple transactions, including its investment in and acquisition of Ele.me; its sales of Internet Plus Holdings Ltd. (Meituan); and its proposed take private transaction of Momo Inc.
• Athenex in its PIPE financing involving Perceptive Advisors and related joint venture with Xiangxue Pharmaceuticals
• The Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Homeinns Hotel Group in connection with its going private transaction
• The Special Committee of the Board of Directors of iKang Healthcare Group, Inc. in connection with its going private transaction
• 51job, Inc. in its going-private transaction

Sonya received her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2014 and her B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Washington University in St. Louis in 2005. She is admitted to practice law in New York. She is fluent in English and Mandarin and proficient in Japanese.