Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have won roles on a major restructuring of the Chinese telecoms market worth around $72bn (£36.3bn).

Freshfields has taken the lead for China Unicom — the country’s second largest mobile operator — on its intended merger with landline provider China Netcom and its disposal of mobile network CDMA to China Telecom.

The firm’s China managing partner, Teresa Ko, took the lead role on the merger, which is worth around $56.3bn (£28.2bn), and the disposal, which is valued at $15.9bn (£8bn).

Slaughters, meanwhile, advised the China International Capital Corporation (CICC), which acted as financial adviser on the restructuring, with Hong Kong corporate partner Benita Yu (pictured)  taking the reins.

Both Freshfields and Slaughters are longstanding advisers to their respective clients, with both acting on Unicom’s initial public offering in 2000, when Slaughters acted for CICC on its role as joint coordinator and bookrunner.

Yu said: “It is a very complex deal as it straddles most of the serious players in the telecoms industry, and that required a lot of detailed thinking. This kind of deal is seldom seen.”

The deals are part of a government ordered shake-up of the sector, which will see the country’s six telecoms companies coming together in order to improve competition in the market.

This latest deal is a further indication of market buoyancy in the Far East, which as yet has not seen the same downturn in activity levels as Europe and the US

Source:legalweek