Ropes & Gray and Fangda Partners have advised a consortium led by the Alibaba Group on its purchase of a $1.38 billion in Chinese courier company ZTO Express, which turned to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for advice. 

The deal is Alibaba’s third investment in a Chinese courier company after it bought minority stakes in YTO Express Group Co and Best Inc. As part of its efforts to boost logistics footprint, it became majority shareholder of logistics company Cainiao last September following an $807 million investment. 

The ecommerce giant’s investment will further support both Cainiao and ZTO’s focus on building up first and last-mile pickup delivery capabilities, warehouse management, cross-border logistics and technology-driven smart solutions. 

The Skadden team was led by Hong Kong partner Julie Gao, while the Ropes & Gray team includes partners Peng Yu and Jim Lidbury from its Hong Kong office.