Richard Ma

Areas of Practice

• IT & Telecoms [2]
• Real Estate [3]
• M & A [4]

About Richard

As a key member of TransAsia’s TMT and real estate practices, Richard has substantial experience assisting multinational strategic investors and financial institutions on market entry, corporate structuring/financing, M&A, operational issues and listings on foreign stock exchanges.  Richard also devotes a portion of his practice to anti-trust and anti-bribery matters for multinational clients. Prior to his time in private legal practice, Richard clerked for several senior judges on the Hubei High Court.

Representative Transactions

IT and Telecoms

• Advised CBS Interactive on its acquisitions of 14 leading vertical portals in China over the past 7 years
• Advised Google on its market entry as well as regulatory and antitrust issues
• Advised Elsevier on (a) its online Chinese portal with respect to both structural and regulatory aspects; (b) the provision of medical and pharmaceutical information services; (c) joint venture with Peking University for the provision of online training courses for Chinese doctors and nurses; and (d) acquisition of a medical software company in Shanghai
• Advised Aruba on its acquisition of Azalea
• Advised Adobe on local regulatory matters
• Advised Akamai on its market entry and structuring
• Advised Sohu.com on its acquisitions of focus.com, 17173.com and go2map.com
• Advised LexisNexis on its acquisition of PRCInvestment.com
• Advised Nokia on its technology cooperation with Sina.com and Tom.com
• Advised Microsoft on its launch of online products
• Advised Morgan Stanley on regulatory matters relating to private lines and VPN
• Advised Hewlett-Packard on its Halo business
• Advised Tiger Global in its investments in PRCEDU and Longtop
• Advised Blue Ridge in its investment in Caike

Media

• Advised Elsevier on its joint venture with Science Press
• Advised China Cablecom (NASDAQ: CABL) on its cooperation with Chinese partners to establish joint ventures and obtain financing, which created a new model for cooperation with Chinese MSOs in the cable television industry
• Advised YOU ON DEMAND (OTCBB: CBBD) on its joint venture with CCTV-6 and content license deals with Hollywood Studios
• Advised CBS in its content license deal with local Internet portal
• Advised O'Reilly Media on its China structure and operation
• Advised Safari (a joint venture between O'Reilly Media and Pearson) on its market entry and cooperation with a local partner
• Advised Walt Disney on its China structure

Real Estate

• Advised Xinyuan Real Estate (NYSE: XIN, the first Asian real estate company listed in the U.S.) on 4 rounds of pre-IPO financing totaling US$ 175 million, as well as on its 2007 IPO on the NYSE
• Advised Blue Ridge on its investments in local residential and commercial developers
• Advised Chevron on land and real estate matters for its cooperative project with CNPC in Chuandongbei
• Advised Philip Morris, Electronic Arts, Tyco International and Rinker Materials (Cemex) on office, plant and building lease matters