Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has advised iQiyi, a Chinese video streaming service provider backed by Baidu, in its $2.25 billion initial public offering on the Nasdaq. Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as the legal adviser to the underwriters, who were led by Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Chinese firms Jingtian & Gongcheng and Han Kun Law Offices were also involved, acting as advisers on PRC law to iQiyi and the underwriters, respectively. Offshore firm Walkers counselled iQiyi on Cayman Islands law.
The listing, which is the second-biggest in the U.S. so far this year, is expected to give the Netflix-like video platform extra financial muscle amid fierce competition in China’s online entertainment market as it squares off against rivals including Alibaba’s service Youku Tudou, reported Reuters.
iQiyi, which has around 50 million subscribers, said it plans to use half the net proceeds from the offering to expand and enhance its content offerings.
The Skadden team included Hong Kong-based partners Julie Gao and Will Cai, while the Davis Polk team was led by partners Li He in Beijing and James Lin in Hong Kong.