Kirkland & Ellis is advising buyer group Mountain Tiger International on its approximately $1 billion bid to take over Bona Film Group, a leading movie producer and distributor in China, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett serving as the Chinese studio’s U.S. legal counsel.

Shearman & Sterling is acting for the independent committee of Bona’s board of directors in matters related to U.S. law, while Davis Polk & Wardwell is representing Barclays Bank, the committee’s financial advisor. For concerns involving Cayman Islands law, Conyers Dill & Pearman is handling the buyer group’s interests, while Maples and Calder is advising Bona’s independent committee.

The go-private deal, which is subject to shareholder approval, is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2016. Led by Bona chairman and CEO Dong Yu, the buyer group also includes subsidiaries of China’s two Internet giants, Alibaba and Tencent, as well as investment companies Sequoia Capital, Fosun International and SAIF Parnters.

Hong Kong-based corporate partners David Zhang and Jesse Sheley are leading K&E’s team while Hong Kong partner Chris Lin is heading the STB team.

M&A specialist Stephanie Tang is leading the Shearman & Sterling team, with help from fellow partners Larry Crouch, Richard Hsu and Stephen Hibbard. Davis Polk partner Miranda So is overseeing the transaction for Davis Polk.

After the deal closes, the ownership group will include Yu and other entities that already hold almost 72 percent of Bona, which runs 30 movie theaters and manages a stable of popular stars in China. Its international film distribution business covers Korea and the U.S. as well as Southeast Asia and Europe. Bona was one of the producers of this year’s The Martian, starring Hollywood leading man Matt Damon, and the 2013 wuxia film The Grandmaster, helmed by art-house cinema director Wong Kar-wai.