Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer has represented Chinese conglomerate CITIC Group on a $4.8 billion agreement to sell its residential property business in mainland China to China Overseas Land & Investment (COLI), which turned to Norton Rose Fulbright for legal advice.

The Freshifields deal team was led by Hong Kong-based partners Calvin Lai and Philip Li, while corporate partner Psyche Tai handled the transaction for Norton Rose. JunHe and Jingtian & Gongcheng also advised on the PRC aspects of the transaction, acting for CITIC and COLI, respectively.

COLI plans to settle part of the deal by issuing $3.8 billion worth of new shares, while the remainder will be paid by transferring property portfolios worth 6.15 billion yuan ($947 million) to CITIC.

Upon completion of the deal, CITIC will gain a 10 per cent stake in COLI and become the company’s second-largest shareholder. The transaction is the biggest M&A in China’s property sector to date and represents a major consolidation between two large-scale state-owned enterprises.

CITIC said in a statement that the addition of COLI’s commercial real estate assets would further strengthen its commercial property business in China.