Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom have advised on U.S.-listed Qihoo 360 Technology’s go-private bid worth up to $9.3 billion.

The definitive agreement was announced on Dec. 18, six months after the Chinese company’s chairman Zhou Hongyu first proposed a non-binding go-private agreement in June.

The offer represents a 16.6 pct premium to the stock's closing on June 16, the day before the company said it had received a buyout offer from a consortium led by Chief Executive Hongyi Zhou at $77 per ADS.

The independent special committee of Qihoo 360, formed to consider the going private proposal, retained Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as its U.S. legal counsel, led by Hong Kong partners Julie Gao and Clive Rough, Beijing partners Peter Huang and Daniel Dusek, and Palo Alto partner Joseph Yaffe. JunHe and Maples and Calder have advised the special committee on PRC and Cayman Islands law, respectively.

Latham & Watkins represented Qihoo on the transaction. 

The buyer consortium includes Citic Guoan, Golden Brick Silk Road Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Taikang Life Insurance, Ping An Insurance, Sunshine Insurance, New China Capital, Huatai Ruilian, Huasheng Capital or their affiliated entities.

A Kirkland team led by Hong Kong partners David Zhang, Jesse Sheley, Xiaoxi Lin and Amie Tang advised the consortium on U.S. law. Fangda Partners served as PRC legal counsel to the consortium, while Conyers Dill & Pearman advised on Cayman Islands law. DeHeng Law Offices advised Citic Guoan on the deal, led by partner Cheng Bo (George).

Qihoo joins the latest wave of Chinese companies delisting from the U.S. exchanges to pursue IPOs in China instead, with the anticipation of higher valuations. As of mid-November, some 33 mainland China companies have unveiled plans this year to be taken private and delist from the U.S. stock exchanges in deals collectively worth $40 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The merger is expected to close in the first half of 2016.