Legal fees for Alibaba IPO top $15.8m, beating Facebook
Law firms advising on the $21bn mega IPO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba are to split $15.8m in legal fees, as the Hangzhou-based company prepares to list on the New York Stock Exchange later this month.
Legal Week first revealed last September that US outfit Simpson Thacher & Bartlett was to take the lead counsel role for Alibaba; with originally-appointed magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer missing out as the company chose to list in New York instead of Hong Kong.
Other firms profiting from the deal include Sullivan & Cromwell, who is representing the banks, Chinese outfit Fangda Partners, which is advising Alibaba on Chinese law, and King & Wood Mallesons, which is providing PRC counsel to the underwriters. Maples and Calder is also among the line-up, as the offshore firm appointed to advise Alibaba on Cayman Islands law.
The $15.8m in fees was announced in a company filing with the SEC on Friday, and is more than six times what firms were paid for the IPO of Facebook in 2012, a total of $2.6m.
The Alibaba IPO is expected to be the biggest in history, beating Visa’s $17.9bn listing in 2008 and Facebook’s $16bn stock market debut in 2012.
It is also among a spate of listings by Chinese companies – and particularly technology companies – on US stock exchanges in the last year, as appetite for tech stocks among US investors grows and listing rules continue to be more relaxed than those in Asia.
Among the most active firms in this space have been Simpson Thacher, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Source: legalweek
