Practice areas

Competition and antitrust; International trade; Foreign investment and national security review

Introduction

Feng Yao is the founder of Sunland international trade and competition team. The Sunland international trade and competition team (the former antitrust team of Broad & Bright), led by Feng, is the leading legal team in antitrust practice in China. Since 1 August 2008, MOFCOM/SAMR has cleared over 2,800 fillings to date, out of which the team has represented more than 330 filings, among the most handled by a domestic firm.

Feng previously worked in The Department of Treaty and Law of The Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China as a governmental counsel and then the director of The Anti-Dumping Office. In 2004 she joined Broad & Bright as a founding member. In 2019, she joined Sunland Law Firm as the founding member of international trade and competition team and principal leader of Hong Kong office.

Feng and her team are highly experienced in handling sensitive and complicated cases, and have successfully resolved many of the conditional merger clearances in China. In MOFCOM/SAMR’s 43 conditional approvals so far. Feng and her team have handled about half of the cases, including China’s first conditional approval of InBev’s acquisition of Anheuser-Busch. In 2009, Feng and her team represented Coco-Cola in its acquisition of Huiyuan, one of the most complicated filings in China and involving political concerns. In 2015, Feng and her team assisted Seagate in successfully obtaining approval by MOFCOM to lift its “hold separate” restriction, which was the first case where the “hold separate” conditions were completely released. In the same year, Feng and her team represented NXP in its acquisition of Freescale, which was the first conditional approval of MOFCOM where the “upfront buyer” situation was involved in the divestment remedy. In 2017, Feng and her team represented five of the seven cases that were conditionally approved by MOFCOM.

In 2018, after institutional reform in China, the first conditional clearance by SAMR was also represented by Feng and her team. In 2019, Feng and her team worked on the United Technologies/Rockwell Collins case and was awarded “Merger Control Matter of the Year – Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa” at the GCR 9th Annual Awards Ceremony on 26 March 2019. Feng and her team represented United Technologies in the transaction. This was the second time that Sunland International Trade and Competition team had won this important award since our work on Seagate/Samsung in 2011.

Feng and her team have also successfully assisted clients in obtaining unconditional clearance in many high profile and complicated filings in China, including the first hostile takeover filing in the country.

Feng and her team have won recognition by clients and the legal society. In recent years, they have been awarded prestigious legal rankings in publications such as Chambers, Global Competition Review, China Business Law Journal, China Law & Practice, Asian Law & Practice in their annual awards for PRC Firm of the Year or deal of the year in Competition law. The major awards that Feng and her team have received include: Chambers Asia-Pacific: Asia’s Leading Lawyer/Firm in Competition/Antitrust 2019, Antitrust Law Firm of the Year in China – 2019 – Global Law Experts, and GCR 100 – 19th Edition – Antitrust. In 2018, Feng and her team won Chambers and Partners: Yao Feng – Leading Lawyer in Competition/Antitrust (PRC Firms) Band 1, 2018 and Chambers and Partners: Leading Firm in Competition/Antitrust (PRC Firms) Band 1, 2018.

In addition to the merger review, Feng and her team have provided consulting services for various antitrust issues, including representing the client to deal with the investigations initiated by NDRC. Feng and her team also have extensive experience in providing consulting services to international companies for antitrust compliance issues under the Anti-Monopoly Law.

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