Cleary Gottlieb – Exploring Tech & Digital M&A Trends between the UK and China

In 2020, with macroeconomic uncertainty continuing, technology and digital offerings are being prioritized as companies seek to navigate the business climate and consider investments for growth. Global M&A activities are being driven by companies striving to strengthen business, increase scale and pursue technology to better withstand prolonged uncertainty. Dealmakers face an increasingly complex landscape and the need to navigate challenges such as economic slowdown, geopolitical strains, enhanced regulatory scrutiny, as well as the practical challenges of lockdowns.  Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the technology, media and telecommunications sector has remained resilient and continues to attract significant interest from investors.

Join us as we welcome Gabriele Antonazzo, Denise Shiu and Paul Gilbert of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP to share their insights into the technology and digital M&A trends in the UK and China.

Speaker Biographies

Gabriele Antonazzo
Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Gabriele’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and private equity transactions.  He has represented private equity funds and corporates in a broad range of M&A transactions in various sectors, often involving complex multi-jurisdictional issues. He has extensive experience structuring and executing transactions in various regions, with a particular emphasis on Europe and Asia.

Gabriele joined the firm in 2000 and is based in London.  He was based in the Hong Kong office of the firm from 2015 to 2019.

Notable Experience

• Silk Road Fund in the acquisition of a 49% equity interest in ACWA Power Renewable Energy Holding Limited, the holding company of a portfolio of wind and solar power plants in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates.
• Hillhouse Capital as one of the lead investors in the approximately $2.5 billion financing round for JD Logistics, the logistics business of JD.com, Inc.
• McDonald’s Corporation in the sale to CITIC Limited, CITIC Capital Holdings and The Carlyle Group of a majority stake in McDonald’s businesses in mainland China and Hong Kong.
• TPG in a wide range of transactions in Southeast Asia and India, including its investments in Janalakshmi Financial Services, Rhea Healthcare Private Limited, Cancer Treatment Services International, and Sutures India Private Limited.
• Weatherford Capital in its investment in CloudFactory, a UK-headquartered global leader in managed workforce solutions for artificial intelligence companies.
• Clermont Group in its investment in MHealthTech, a leading healthcare sector app developer in Indonesia.
• Tele2 in the creation of a joint venture with Kazakhtelecom that combined telecom mobile operators MTS and Altel, and in the subsequent sale of its stake to Kazakhtelecom.
• Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the sale of its wealth management business in Asia, Europe and Latin America to Julius Baer.

Denise Shiu
Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Denise represents a wide range of Chinese and global clients in international M&A, private equity, and foreign direct investments, and has played a key role in many complex and high-value transactions in China and the rest of the Asia.

Denise joined the firm in 2010 and is based in the Beijing and Hong Kong offices of the firm.

Notable Experience

• TPG in numerous transactions, including as a consortium member in the acquisition of internet provider Wharf T&T; the going private transaction of United Family Healthcare and the subsequent sale of United Family Healthcare by TPG, Fosun, and other existing shareholders to New Frontier Corporation; its investments in APM Monaco, CD Finance, Kangji, and OPC Holding Company; its sale of part of its stake in Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation; and its acquisition of stakes in HCP Holdings.
• HOPU in various transactions, including its investments in SenseTime and Trax Ltd.;
• Goldman Sachs, as financial advisor to Tencent, in its proposed going private acquisition of Sogou Inc., and in its proposed stock-for-stock merger of HUYA and Douyu.
• A private equity investor in its investment in ANT Financial.
• Private equity investors in their respective investments in Megvii, Mobike, Uxin and NextEV.
• Hony Capital, as a member of a consortium led by Shanghai Giant Network Technology, in the $4.4 billion acquisition of Caesar Entertainment Corp.’s online casino-style games unit, Playtika Ltd., and in its investment in Tuniu Corporation.
• The going private transactions of eFuture Holding, OmniVision Technologies, Asiainfo-Linkage, Funtalk China Holdings, Global-Tech Advanced Innovation, and China GrenTech Corporation, among others.
• China Life Insurance in its purchase of all the shares of China Guangfa Bank held by Citigroup and IBM Credit LLC.

Paul Gilbert
Counsel, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Paul’s practice focuses on EU and UK competition law, including merger control, anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominance and sectoral regulation.  He has represented clients before the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (and its predecessors, the Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission), as well as in litigation before the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal and Court of Appeal.

Paul joined the firm in 2011 and is based in London.  Before joining the firm he was Deputy Director of Competition Policy at the UK Office of Fair Trading.

Notable Experience

• Sony Corporation of America on the EU antitrust aspects of the $2.2 billion acquisition of EMI Music Publishing.
• Google before the UK competition authorities in its acquisitions of Looker Data Sciences, BeatThatQuote and Waze, and in the EC’s investigation into online search.
• The Walt Disney Company in connection with investigations by the UK communications regulator Ofcom and the Competition Commission into the UK Pay TV sector, in its acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
• Hewlett-Packard in the UK Office of Fair Trading’s – now the UK Competition and Markets Authority – market study into the supply of information and communication technology to the public sector.