Private Equity & Venture Capital

TransAsia represents private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds and investee entities on both domestic and cross-border investment activities involving China. These include portfolio company investments, exit transactions (including initial public offerings), recapitalizations and M&A transactions. We represent local start-ups and mature companies, investors as well as investees.

As one of the earliest local firms to advise on private equity and venture capital transactions under Chinese law, TransAsia enjoys a reputation for experience, effective solutions and strategic thinking.  We operate across a wide array of industry sectors, such as IT & telecoms, media, real estate, educational and vocational training, retail, mining, renewable energy and public utilities.

Client Services

• Target identification and selection
• Legal due diligence
• Structuring
• Documentation and negotiation
• Advising on post-financing operational issues (employment, IP protection, regulatory issues, licenses and permits)
• Implementing exit strategies
• Crisis management

Our private equity and venture capital team works closely with our corporate and commercial, intellectual property and employment practices. This multi-disciplinary approach enables us to provide comprehensive, integrated assistance and to design and implement sophisticated structures.

Representative Transactions

Investors 

• PRC counsel to Tiger Global and Tiger Technologies (leading private equity fund) for their major private equity investments in China, including into:
  • Joyo.com (leading B2C e-commerce company)
  • Dangdang.com (leading B2C e-commerce company)
  • ChinaEdu (largest online university in China)
  • Carling Technology Limited (leading bio-diesel oil company)
  • Impel Media Limited (leading outdoor media company)
  • New Oriental (largest foreign language training institution in China)
  • Shanxi Qinhe (mining company)
  • Dulwich (leading private school)
• Advised CDH Fund on its investment in AirTV (leading out-of-home media company)
• PRC counsel to Blue Ridge China (leading U.S.-backed private equity fund), for its investments in several portfolio companies in China, including into:
  • Xinyuan Real Estate (first real estate company in Asia to list on the NYSE)
  • a commercial real estate developer focused on secondary cities
  • a petroleum equipment manufacturer
  • a private petro-chemical company
  • 2 leading private higher education institutions
• Served as PRC counsel for Lightspeed, a leading U.S. venture capital group, on its Series A investment in an online advertising company
• Represented Taishan Invest AG, a Swiss-based angel investment fund, in its investment in Qoolu Networks Inc.  
• PRC counsel to Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, for its Series B investment in Yoho media
• Represented Spark Capital and Gobi Ventures in their investment in 8D World (online education platform developed for English language study)
• PRC counsel to Mustang Ventures, for its Series A investment in Madeforchina.com (CPA marketing platform)
• PRC counsel to Pantheon Capital, for its pre-IPO investment in a leading flooring solutions provider in China

Investees

• Represented Mtime.com (China's largest movie website) in multiple venture capital financing rounds involving well-known international funds
• Advised Youku.com (leading video sharing website in China) on its last 2 venture capital financing rounds led by Bain Capital and Maverick Capital with a total investment value of US$ 55 million, as well as its US$ 10 million venture debt and leasing facility  
• Represented OPI (whose 2 flagship companies are the leading community websites in China: Mop.com and Xiaonei.com) on a US$ 430 million investment by Softbank, the largest investment to date in the SNS sector
• Advised Xinyuan Real Estate on its offshore US$ 100 million bond financing (Series D) and subsequent IPO on the NYSE
• Advised Qunar.com (largest online travel search engine in China) on its seed financing and subsequent venture capital financing rounds by GSR, Mayfield, Tenaya Capital and Granite Global Ventures
• Represented Qunar.com in its strategic equity financing from Baidu in an amount of US $306 million

RMB Fund Formation