Shearman & Sterling has advised Zhaopin on its go-private deal with a consortium led by Seek International, the Chinese job site’s current controlling shareholder, along with private equity investors Hillhouse Capital Management and Fountainvest Partners.
O’Melveny and Myers (OMM) and King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) acted for Seek International while Weil, Gotshal & Manges represented Hillhouse Capital Management. Walkers served as Cayman Islands legal counsel to the consortium.
The deal was recommended to NYSE-listed Zhaopin by a special committee, which turned to Fenwick & West and Zhong Lun for advice. Maples and Calder served as Cayman Islands legal counsel to the special committee and Zhaopin.
After the deal, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017, Zhaopin will become a privately-held company and will no longer be listed in New York.
Zhaopin has more than 129.5 million registered users and is the most popular career platform in China. Seek, Australia’s largest jobs portal, previously did a similar deal in 2011 when it integrated JobsDB, Asia’s leading online employment marketplace.
Partner Stephanie Tang led the Shearman team, while partners Nima Amini and Ke Geng handled the transaction for OMM. Asia managing partner Akiko Mikumo headed Weil’s team, with support from Hong Kong-based partner Tim Gardner.
