DLA Piper appoints M&A partner in Hong Kong

DLA Piper has reinforced its Corporate practice in Asia with the appointment of Xin Fang as a new M&A partner hire in Hong Kong. Her appointment is effective January 3.

The addition brings DLA Piper’s corporate team in Asia to over 70 lawyers in total, including 21 partners, a spokesperson for the firm told FinanceAsia. In Hong Kong, the firm employs six partners and a total of 23 lawyers.

Notable private equity (PE) transactions that the UK-headquartered law firm has advised on include the $1.2 billion sale of Hinduja Global Solutions’ healthcare business to Baring Private Equity Asia in August 2021; Wise Road Capital’s acquisition of Swiss manufacturing firm, Huba Control, from Siemens in August 2020; and South Korean steel-maker, POSCO’s acquisition of a 30% equity interest in the Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Western Australia, in May 2021.

More recently in December 2022, the firm advised Fosun’s Lanvin Group on its $1 billion de-SPAC merger with New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-listed Primavera Capital Acquisition Corporation.

According to a recent report by S&P Global research, PE dealmaking in 2022 was at its lowest in five years and has shown progressive decline over the past six quarters. In total, the year saw 208 PE transactions with a total value of $35.43 billion. This compares to 347 deals valued at $74.08 billion, in 2021. An important trend in PE last year was the shift by US institutional investors from dealmaking in China towards other markets including India, the report highlights.

SPAC deals also plummeted in 2022. S&P data shows that just 187 SPAC deals raised $8.85 billion in 2022, compared with 265 deals worth $39.16 billion in 2021.

Specialising in cross-border M&A, joint ventures, and PE transactions, Fang most recently served as counsel within Mayer Brown’s Hong Kong Corporate & Securities practice, which she had joined in 2012.

"Xin’s appointment forms part of our Asia Corporate group’s long-term strategy to continue developing our M&A practice in the region, and we are excited to have her on board,” said DLA Piper international global co-chair of Corporate, Benjamin Parameswaran, in the release. He added that the firm advised on over 7,000 transactions between 2010 and 2021.

DLA Piper’s latest hire follows its appointment of Trinh Hoang and Crystal Chen as Asia Finance, Projects and Restructuring partners in December and May. Both were earlier with Linklaters.