Jia Yuan Law Offices, King & Wood Mallesons and AllBright Law Offices have guided parties involved in Guolian Securities’ RMB29.5 billion (USD4.04 billion) acquisition of Minsheng Securities.
On 27 December, China Securities Regulatory Commission approved Guolian Securities’ proposal to acquire 99.26% of Minsheng Securities from 45 shareholders by issuing A shares.
This is the first brokerage M&A that has received approval since the new “Nine Guidelines” was issued by the State Council in April, which ramped up supervision over China’s capital markets.
Jia Yuan’s founding partner Yan Yu and partner Liu Jing, along with KWM partners Su Zheng, Zhang Jingping and Jiang Yifeng acted as counsel for this transaction.
AllBright’s senior partner Liu Xueliang acted as counsel for Lucion, the venture capital firm held 8.96% of Minsheng Securities before the merger.
Minsheng Securities is one of the oldest brokerage firms in China, with branches primarily covering Henan and Shandong provinces. Its strength in investment banking attracted Guolian Securities to make the acquisition to enhance its market competitiveness.
The HKEX and SSE-listed Guolian Securities offers wealth management, asset securitisation and derivatives services to mainly the Wuxi and southern Jiangsu markets.
China has been making headway on refining its market and, in 2023, the country’s highest-level conference on financial work – the Central Financial Work Conference – proposed to “cultivate world-class investment banks and investment firms” for the first time.
A year later, China issued the “Nine Guidelines”, for leading brokerage firms to increase its competitiveness through M&A and restructuring.
The M&A plans at four brokerage firms have been progressing in December 2024: Minsheng and Guolian, Guotai Junan and Haitong, Guosen and Wanhe, as well as Zheshang and Guodu.
