Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Han Kun Law Offices, and Tian Yuan Law Firm have scored key advisory roles in the merger of China’s two biggest online-to-offline service providers, Meituan.com and Dianping Holding.
Alibaba-backed Meituan and Tencent affiliate Dianping said they are teaming up to create China's dominant player in offering services such as finding deals at local restaurants, booking cinema tickets through smartphones, as well as group-buying of coupons and accessing ratings, similar to those offered by Groupon and Yelp.
The merged company could be valued at $15 billion or higher, marking the largest merger in China’s Internet industry based on combined valuations. A more precise valuation may come in the next few weeks as it negotiates a fresh round of funding with investors.
A Skadden team led by partners Julie Gao, Haiping Li and Will Cai is acting for Dianping. Meituan is represented by Davis Polk. Han Kun and Tian Yuan are are advising on Chinese law. Tian Yuan’s team is led by partners Chen Yutian and Wang Tao.
The Meituan-Dianping merger comes after Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, two leading taxi-hailing firms that were also backed separately by Alibaba and Tencent, joined forces in a share swap worth $6 billion earlier this year.