Baker McKenzie and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have advised Hong Kong-listed Global New Material International (GNMI) on its acquisition of Surface Solution, the business unit of Germany-headquartered Merck, for EUR665 million (USD730.3 million).
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions, and it is expected to be completed in 2025.
GNMI appointed Baker McKenzie as its counsel, with the firm’s multinational teams led by Shanghai-based partner Jeff Xu, Hong Kong-based partner Derek Poon, Frankfurt-based partner Christian Atzler and Dusseldorf-based partner Patrick Wilkening.
Other team members include corporate/M&A partners Brian Wong and Guillaume Nataf, real estate partner Daniel Bork, and foreign investment partners Anahita Thoms and Rod Hunter.
Baker McKenzie’s antitrust and competition partners Nicolas Kredel and Laura Liu, employment law partners Steffen Scheuer and Jeremie Paubel, and banking and finance partner Kenneth Ching also participated.
Freshfields’ team of lawyers from Germany, the UK and Hong Kong are advising Merck on the sale and demerger of the business unit. Frankfurt/Berlin-based partner Lars Meyer and Hamburg-based partner Philipp Dohnke are leading the team.
The Freshfields team includes antitrust partners Rod Carlton and Frank R?hling, corporate/M&A partner Grace Huang, as well as employment law partners Thomas Müller-Bonanni and Thomas Granetzny.
Tax partners Christian Ruoff and Tanja Walter-Yadegardjam, public law partner Michael Ramb, energy law partner Ulrich Scholz, and real estate partner Julia Haas are also part of the Freshfields team.
Surface Solution supplies pearlescent pigments, cosmetic ingredients and other industrial raw materials, with production and research facilities located in the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
In 2023, Surface Solution generated EUR411 million in sales. Merck plans to use the proceeds from the sale to strengthen its core businesses, including life sciences, healthcare and electronics.
GNMI is China’s largest and the world’s third-biggest producer of pearlescent materials. The company’s headquarter is in Guangxi and it operates in the mainland, Hong Kong and South Korea, with around 800 employees.
