Two PRC firms dominated the M&A deals volume chart in Greater China this year, with King & Wood and Grandall Legal Group securing leads in Mergermarket's latest top ten legal advisors league table (in terms of deal volume).
According to Mergermarket, King & Wood advised on ten deals in the first quarter of this year, with a total deal value of US$1.4bn, climbing two places to fourth on the table from its sixth ranking of the same period in 2009. Grandall was hot on its heels, finishing sixth on the league table this year with a deal value of US$630m and a deal count of seven, down three from last year.
PRC companies also ruled the top deals league table in Asia Pacific, with three PRC companies, China Mobile, PetroChina Company and Guangzhou Automobile Group taking fourth, seventh and eighth place respectively. With a deal value of US$5.8bn, China Mobile’s deal was advised by Chinese firms Haiwen & Partners in its bid for a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank which was advised by PRC firm Shanghai United Law Firm.
Guangzhou Automobile Group’s deal with Denway Motors was also advised by Beijing Tianyin Law Firm as well as Hong Kong-based Woo Kwan Lee & Lo.
The US$35.5bn Prudential- AIG deal was the largest deal in the Asia Pacific whilst DLA Piper topped the deals volume chart, racing forward from eighth place last year with a deal count of 20, up 12 year-on year.
DLA Piper Asia managing director Alistair De Costa said the firm is confident in its position but will not be complacent in the face of strong competition from its Chinese counterparts.
“There is no question that Chinese law firms are big,” Da Costa said.“This is an inevitable trend [to see Asian firms getting into the league tables where it was previously the domain of large international firms] but I still feel quite confident about how we’re positioned in the face of that competition. We have an international reach that is difficult to compare with but we’re not complacent and we know that there’s competition out there,” he said. ALB
| H1 2009 | H1 2010 | Company name | Value ($) | Deal Count 2010 | Deal Count 2009 | Deal Count Change |
| 8 | 1 | DLA Piper | 345 | 20 | 8 | 12 |
| 1 | 2 | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | 4, 235 | 13 | 13 | -1 |
| 15 | 3 | Jones Day | 2,494 | 13 | 13 | 7 |
| 6 | 4 | King & Wood | 1,411 | 10 | 10 | 2 |
| 26 | 5 | Slaughter May | 40,466 | 9 | 9 | 5 |
| 3 | 6 | Grandall Legal Group | 630 | 7 | 7 | -3 |
| 4 | 7 | Herbert Smith/ Gleiss Lutz/ Stibber | 38,731 | 6 | 6 | -4 |
| 5 | 8 | Linklaters | 8,525 | 6 | 6 | -3 |
| 2 | 9 | Baker & McKenzie | 5,475 | 6 | 6 | -5 |
| 146 | 10 | Allen & Overy | 2,717 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
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