Seven law firms, including Herbert Smith Freehills, CM Law Firm, Grandall Law Firm and Harneys, have secured roles in the HKEX’s second-largest IPO this year with mainland logistics giant SF Express raising HKD5.83 billion (USD749 million).
Herbert Smith Freehills, led by partners Jason Sung, Jeremy Shen and Kong Jin, acted as SF Express’ Hong Kong and US law counsel.
CM acted as the PRC law counsel while Grandall counselled the Chinese courier on PRC data compliance.
Partner Raymond Ng at Harneys advised the issuer on BVI and Cayman Islands law.
Bird & Bird advised the controlling shareholders on Hong Kong law. These shareholders include Mingde Holding, which controls 55.27% of SF Express’ equity interest, Mingde’s shareholder Wang Wei and Mingde’s subsidiary Shenzhen Weishun.
Clifford Chance’s Xiang Tianning and Fang Liu advised joint sponsors Goldman Sachs, Huatai International and JP Morgan, as well as other underwriters, on Hong Kong and US law. King & Wood Mallesons acted as their PRC law counsel, with partners Gong Mulong, Zhou Rui, Su Zheng, Sun Haotian, Ren Liguang, Tian Weina and Ye Kai among KWM’s team.
SF Express said it recorded RMB258 billion in revenue in 2023, the largest logistics service provider in China and Asia by revenue that year according to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. SF Express is also the fourth-largest player in the sector globally. The company’s profit has grown annually during the past three years, reaching RMB8.2 billion last year.
