Morrison Foerster (“MoFo”) has advised Ascendent Capital Partners (“Ascendent”) as an existing investor in a merger of the core overseas education business of NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) (“NetDragon”) with Gravitas Education Holdings Inc. (renamed as Mynd.ai, Inc.(NYSE: MYND) after the merger).
Following the merger, NetDragon became the controlling shareholder of Mynd.ai, which wholly owns the subsidiaries operating the oversea education business. The equity value of the merged education business of NetDragon was valued at US$800 million. As part of the transaction, Best Assistant Education Online Limited, a subsidiary of NetDragon, partly redeemed the US$150 million existing bonds issued to Ascendent. At the same time, Ascendent purchased US$65 million convertible bonds issued by Mynd.ai.
MoFo previously advised Ascendent on a number of strategic investments, including but not limited to its (i) US$267 million sale of Etern Group; and (ii) US$150 million initial investment in Best Assistant Education Online Limited.
The MoFo team of this transaction was led by Marcia Ellis, Hong Kong Partner and Global Co-chair of the firm’s Private Equity Group, and Hong Kong PE/M&A Partner Maureen Ho. Key members of the team included Partners John Owen (New York), Michael O’Bryan (San Francisco), Scott Lesmes (Washington, D.C.), Of Counsel Hong Cheong Wong (Singapore), Associates Bryce Gray (Tokyo), Letian Ge (Tokyo), Thomas Good (Washington, D.C.), Victoria McGrath (New York), Julia Lee (Hong Kong), Sarah Luo (Hong Kong), Ziqi Qi (Hong Kong), Shuwen Zeng (Hong Kong) and Chloe Chen (Hong Kong).
