Norton Rose Fulbright has scored key advisory role in the Hong Kong-listed China Overseas Land & Investment’s (COLI) recent acquisition of a property portfolio from China’s State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCECL) worth $5.5 billion.

The portfolio includes property projects in China’s 11 mainland cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Suzhou and three projects in London.

Norton's team was led by Hong Kong partner Psyche Tai with assistance from senior associate Doris Ng and associate Michelle Tsang. Chinese law firm Jingtian & Gongcheng served as the PRC lawyer, while there was no external counsel for China’s State Construction.

CSCECL is the Shanghai listed arm of the state-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation, the third largest construction company in the world.

CSCECL is the ultimate controlling share holder of COLI. As part of the deal, COLI would acquire the asset from CSCECL, for a total consideration of 1.82 billion yuan and 31.99 billion yuan in loans owned by CSCECL. COLI plans to issue around 1.69 billion new shares at the price of HK$25.38 each to its direct controlling shareholder China Overseas Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the CSCECL.