Law firms Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Kirkland & Ellis and Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson have acted in China’s largest ever private equity deal worth $3.7 billion, in which display-advertising provider Focus Media Holding Ltd is to be acquired by CEO Jason Nanchun Jiang and a consortium led by Carlyle Group LP.
The Nasdaq-listed Focus Media operates advertising screens in offices, elevators and supermarkets across China.
In the going-private transaction, the buyers offered $5.50 per ordinary share of the company, or $27.50 per American Depositary Share, and planned to merge it with Giovanna Parent Ltd and Giovanna Acquisition Ltd, owned and controlled by Carlyle Asia Partners III, LP.
Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd, which together with Jiang owns about 35.5 percent of Focus Media, backed the deal and will also become part of the consortium taking over the company once the transaction is complete.
Other members of the consortium included FountainVest Partners, CITIC Capital Partners and China Everbright. The deal is expected to close during the second quarter of 2013, Reuters reported.
Bank of America, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, UBS and Deutsche Bank have agreed to join the Chinese banks in providing $1.53 billion as debt for the transaction.
Skadden represented Jiang with a team headed by partners Peter Huang and Michael Gisser, while Kirkland & Ellis corporate partners David Zhang, Jesse Sheley and Stephanie Tang represented Focus Media’s independent committee. Weil, Gotshal partner Akiko Mikumo, meanwhile, led the team which advised Citi and Credit Suisse, the leading financial advisers to the consortium.
The Fried Frank team, led by partners Douglas Freeman and Victor Chen, advised the private equity sponsors with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison advising The Caryle Group.
Liu Zhen is China senior journalist at ALB. Follow us on Twitter: @ALB_Magazine.
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