Kirkland & Ellis and Sullivan & Cromwell have advised CITIC Securities International and Goldman Sachs (U.S.), respectively, on their investments in China’s largest distressed-loan manager, Huarong Asset Management, which turned to King & Wood Mallesons and Paul Hastings for legal advice.

CITIC and Goldman Sachs, together with other members of the consortium, including China Life Insurance (Group) Co, Warburg Pincus, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, CICC, Fosun International and COFCO Corp, will acquire a 21 percent stake in Huarong for 14.5 billion yuan ($2.4 billion).

The investment by the consortium comes as Huarong prepares to go public, following in the steps of its “bad bank” brother, China Cinda Asset Management, which listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December.

The team from Kirkland & Ellis that advised CITIC Securities was led by Hong Kong-based corporate partners Frank Sun, Nick Norris and David Yun.

Goldman Sachs was advised by Sullivan & Cromwell, which was led by Hong Kong-based corporate partner Michael DeSombre, international trade partner Eric Kadel Jr. who is based in Washington D.C., and New York-based regulatory partner Michael Escue.

Huarong was advised on the sale by Paul Hastings, which was led by Hong Kong and Beijing-based corporate partner Nan Li, and King & Wood Mallesons.

The team from King & Wood Mallesons was led by Beijing-based corporate partners Tang Lizi, Peng Jin, and Tang Yingmao.

Huarong Asset Management is one of four asset management companies in China created to salvage non-performing loans for state-owned banks.

Huarong works with ICBC, Cinda for China Construction Bank, Great Wall for Agricultural Bank of China and China Orient for Bank of China.