Maples Group Continues to Act on High-Profile Hong Kong IPOs
The Maples Group is pleased to announce that its Hong Kong team has once again been selected to act on a high profile, technology Hong Kong IPO as markets predict another boom year for IPOs in Hong Kong. In its most recent role, the team acted as Cayman Islands counsel to Kuaishou Technology 快手科技 (“Kuaishou”) in relation to its initial public offering of weighted voting Class B shares and listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The transaction which closed on 5 February 2021, raised approximately US$6.1 billion in total and represents the largest listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange so far this year, and the largest in the world since 2019, a fitting dawn to the year of the OX.
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Kuaishou, whose motto is to “embrace all lifestyles”, is a leading content community and social platform globally. Kuaishou is the largest live streaming platform by gross billings from virtual gifting and average live streaming monthly paying users, the second largest short video platform by average daily active users, and the second largest live streaming e-commerce platform by gross merchandise value.
A team based in the Group’s law firm in Hong Kong acted as Cayman Islands counsel to Kuaishou, and was led by Finance Partner, Everton Robertson and assisted by Legal Manager, Jessica Zhan. The Group’s fund services business in Asia acted as the Cayman Islands share registrar, and the team was led by Eastern Fong, Regional Head of Fund Services, Asia and Vice President Christy Poon.
Commenting on the transaction, Everton said, “The Maples Group is pleased to have had the privilege of assisting Kuaishou, the leading global content-based social platform, having acted for the company, as with many of our listed clients, from its early stages of investment and venture rounds through to Pre-IPO and finally to its Hong Kong listing – the largest listing so far this year. We continue to see companies of all sizes utilise a Hong Kong listing as an exit strategy even during these challenging times.”
Latham & Watkins LLP acted as Hong Kong and US legal counsel to the company and Haiwen & Partners acted as PRC legal counsel to the company. Clifford Chance acted as Hong Kong and US legal counsels to the Joint Global Coordinators, Morgan Stanley Asia Limited, Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific) Limited and China Renaissance Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, and Commerce & Finance Law Offices acted as PRC legal counsel to the Joint Global Coordinators.
Impressively, among the top 10 largest IPO funds raised by newly listed Hong Kong companies in 2020, the Maples Group acted for four of them, which raised HK$98.04bn of the annual aggregated HK$184.32bn raisings[1].
[1] Source: HKEX: Market Statistics 2020