They "truly know their area of expertise", and "especially excel in providing solution-oriented advice that is pragmatic and workable from a business standpoint." "They are incredibly responsive and can help with pretty much any need we have."
— Chambers Greater China 2023
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For more than 40 years, Morrison Foerster has been on the ground advising clients on their most important China-related matters. We were among the first U.S. law firms to establish an office in China’s major business centers. Our Hong Kong office has been open since 1983 (and qualified to practice Hong Kong law since 2001) and our Shanghai office opened in 2003.
We have more than 50 U.S.-, Hong Kong-, PRC-, and England and Wales-qualified professionals, who work closely with attorneys throughout the firm to deliver calibrated and sound advice to clients.
Our team is consistently ranked for its exceptional legal work throughout China in leading independent directories such as: Chambers Asia Pacific, Legal 500 Asia Pacific, and Bloomberg, among others.
We counsel a wide variety of clients in China on their most high-profile investments, as well as on finance and regulatory matters. Our clients include many of the world’s largest multinationals, private equity/real estate/venture/credit fund managers, institutional investors, and the most substantial and active institutional companies in the region. We provide legal advice to companies across a broad range of sectors, including technology, life sciences, data center, financial institutions, AI, fintech, digital media, food & agriculture, and semiconductor.
- Timothy W. BlakelyManaging Partner, Hong Kong
- Chuan SunManaging Partner, Shanghai
- Timothy W. BlakelyManaging Partner, Hong Kong
- Chuan SunManaging Partner, Shanghai
Experience
Represented Alibaba Group in the acquisition of a 33% stake of Ant Financial, operator of China’s biggest online payment platform by market share.
Represented Alibaba Group in relation to Ant Financial’s US$14 billion Series C fundraising, valuing Ant Financial at approximately US$150 billion.
Represented SoftBank Vision Fund’s US$11 billion investment in WeWork.
Represented SoftBank in connection with the additional US$4.6 billion purchase of Didi shares; we also represented SoftBank as sole counsel in its US$4.6 billion investment in Didi.
Represented SoftBank Vision Fund in connection with a US$3 billion investment into Local Services Holding Company, a company established by Alibaba after consolidating the businesses of Ele.me (the food delivery business owned by Alibaba) and Koubei.com (an affiliate company that focuses on bringing local businesses online by providing payment and other technology services); after such consolidation, the valuation of Local Services Holding Company is over US$30 billion.
Represented SoftBank Vision Fund in connection with an investment totaling US$1.5 billion in Chehaoduo, a leading Chinese customer-to-customer auto retail services company that operates Guazi, an e-commerce platform focusing on second-hand car transactions, and Maodou, an e-commerce platform focusing on new car transactions.
Represented Walmart in a US$500 million financing and strategic alliance with New Dada, China’s largest localized, on-demand logistics and grocery O2O e-commerce platform; the transaction included a US$320 million investment by Walmart and a new business cooperation agreement.
Represented Ally Bridge Group in its equity investment in GRAIL, a company developing a blood test that will detect cancer before symptoms appear in order to increase survival rates as compared to those patients with late-stage diagnoses; the investment, led by our client, raised US$300 million in an oversubscribed Series C financing.
Represented Oriente, a Hong Kong-based financial services and technology company, in its US$105 million initial funding round, and a series of recent expansions in Southeast Asia, including two strategic alliances: Cashalo in the Philippines with JG Summit, and Finmas in Indonesia with Sinar Mas.
Represented Trusted Doctors (Xingren) in its strategic merger agreement with Tencent Doctorwork. The newly formed venture, which is named Tencent Trusted Doctors, will offer an ecosystem of both online and offline services devoted to leveraging Internet technology to provide high-quality and accessible healthcare service to customers all over the country.