Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Carlyle on investments into Ant Financial and Baidu FSG

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance advised The Carlyle Group on two major investment transactions in China's fintech sector: subscription of the Series C preference shares issued by Ant International Co., Limited, a wholly owned offshore subsidiary of Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group Co., Ltd. (Ant Financial), which is part of Ant Financial's equity financing totaling US$14 billion and US$1.9 billion equity investment into the financial services group of Baidu (also known by its brand name as 'Du Xiaoman', 'Baidu FSG') in connection with its spin-off from Baidu.

The investment in Ant Financial was announced in June 2018. Other than Carlyle, a number of other leading global institutional investors also participated in this round of equity financing.

The investment in Baidu FSG was made by a group of investors led by Carlyle and TPG. After the investment, these investors will collectively hold a majority of equity stake in Baidu FSG. Baidu FSG will operate independently from Baidu and will enter into business cooperation arrangements with Baidu.

The definitive transaction agreements were signed in April 2018 and the deal is expected to close later this year.

Partners Fang Liu (Hong Kong) and Terence Foo (China) jointly led the two transactions, and were supported by partner Zhang Hong, senior associate Maureen Ho and associate Ethan Ying on the Ant Financial deal, and by senior associates Brian Harley and Jay Liang on the Baidu FSG deal.

"We are extremely pleased to advise Carlyle on these two landmark transactions involving China's most prominent fintech players, which once again demonstrated our in-depth expertise in the dynamic fintech industry," said Fang.