Freshfields, Simpson Thacher, Fangda Partners, Haiwen & Partners and Allen & Overy have advised on the sale of a 60% stake in Chinese property giant Dalian Wanda’s mall unit, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group, for RMB60 billion (USD8.3 billion).
The deal is China’s largest single private equity investment in the past five years and it offered a ray of hope to Zhuhai Wanda to repay its tanked bet-on agreement in 2021.
The agreement shows the private equity firms PAG, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Mubadala Investment Company, CITIC Capital and Ares Management have collectively acquired 60% of Zhuhai Wanda’s stake. The remaining 40% is held by parent company Dalian Wanda.
Freshfields’ partner Shen Yuxin led the team, advising Dalian Wanda on the transaction. Richard Wang, a partner and head of Freshfields’ China equity capital market team, advised on capital markets matters, while partner John Choong advised on dispute resolution issues.
Simpson Thacher’s partner Wang Yang and Fangda acted for PAG.
Allen & Overy’s partner Wayne Lee led the team to advise Mubadala Investment. Lang Yue Law Firm, A&O’s joint operation in China, assisted on the transaction.
Haiwen represented Ares Management and CITIC Capital.
Zhuhai Wanda, the world’s largest shopping mall operator, lured an RMB38 billion investment from 22 institutions in 2021, including PAG, Tencent and Ant Group. One of the conditions of the terms struck with the original investors was the company would be listed by the end of 2023 at the latest.
However, the company failed to meet this requirement on four separate occasions, leading to an obligation to repay investors RMB30 billion.
