NAME: Yijun Chao
LAW FIRM: Han Kun Law Offices
JURISDICTION: China
PRACTICE AREA: Capital markets
Partner Yijun Chao of Han Kun Law Offices wins our August lawyer of the month award for his key role in KE Holdings’ New York IPO in August. The deal marks the largest US IPO by a Chinese issuer in two years.
Backed by SoftBank Group and Tencent Holdings, Chinese online housing transaction platform KE Holdings is the operator of property listings website Beike Zhaofang and real estate brokerage brand Lianjia.
Chao, together with partners Jiaxin Liu and Jin Wang, advised and acted as the PRC counsel to KE Holdings on its US IPO and listing on the NYSE.
Partner Yijun Chao’s practice covers capital markets and securities, corporate and M&A, private equity and intellectual property. He has extensive experience in representing tech companies in their venture financing and offshore securities offerings. It is also worth noting that Chao has around eight years of experience with two US-based international law firms: Coudert Brothers and Morrison & Foerster.
NAME: Gautam Saha
LAW FIRM: AZB & Partners
JURISDICTION: India
PRACTICE AREA: Banking and finance, Corporate and M&A, Private equity
AZB & Partners partner Gautam Saha wins our September lawyer of the month for his role in working with Brookfield Asset Management on its approved purchase, alongside Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and British Columbia Investment Management, of the full stake in the Tower Infrastructure Trust (the Trust) from Reliance Group for $3.4 billion.
The Trust is an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) that holds a 100% stake in Reliance Jio Infratel, which owns 135,000 communications towers across India. The transaction was signed in December 2019 and received regulatory approval in August 2020. The multi-stage mandate is the single-largest PE deal ever in India and the single largest foreign investment in an Indian infrastructure vehicle.
The deal features a number of landmark attributes, including being the largest fundraising by an InvIT in the country, being the first InvIT in the telecoms sector, and being the first InvIT that acquired an asset prior to launching the initial offer of its units. It is also the first InvIT with an independent investment manager. Other firms involved in the matter included Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co and Nishith Desai Associates.
Saha is a corporate and finance specialist, having won many accolades from the industry for his TMT sector expertise and private equity prowess. Recent clients include Bharti Airtel, IFC, Orix, Sequoia Pine Investment Holdings, ICICI Bank and Tiger Global Management. He has been recognised for many years as a Distinguished Practitioner in asialaw’s Leading Lawyers.