In one of Taiwan's largest M&A transactions in recent years, international and local Taiwan firms have been working together to facilitate AIG's US$2.15bn sell-off of its Taiwan life insurance unit – Nan Shan Life Insurance. The deal is the largest sale globally of an AIG business so far, and the funds raised from this sale will be used to repay the tens of billions of dollars in bailout money it has received from the US government.
A consortium led by Hong Kong-based investment company Primus Financial has won the bid to buy 97.6% stake of Nan Shan – the third largest Taiwan life insurer by total premiums. Simpson Thacher and LCS & Partners acted as Primus's international and domestic legal counsel respectively. China Strategic, a Hong Kong-listed investment firm, has also participated in the consortium. It turned to Freshfields for legal advice.
AIG appointed US firm Debevoise & Plimpton and Taiwan firm Lee and Li to advise it on the transaction. Debevoise has worked with AIG on several other recent matters, while Lee and Li has been involved in number of Nan Shan's acquisitions previously.
Given the complexity of the deal, law firms had to form large global teams to handle all important issues arising from the transaction. Simpson Thacher's team, for example, included at least 19 partners and lawyers from offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, New York, Palo Alto and London. They are from a mix of practice groups such as corporate, M&A, finance, tax, IP, executive compensation and employee benefits and environmental. Debevoise also composed a global team headed by New York partner John Vasily and rounded up by executive compensation, tax and IP partners and lawyers from New York and London.
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