Baker & McKenzie’s Hong Kong office, in conjunction with more than 10 other Asian, European and US Baker & McKenzie offices, recently advised Macquarie Bank Limited (“Macquarie”) on its acquisition of Asian equities business of the ING Group (“ING”). A sale and purchase agreement was entered into between Macquarie and ING on 8 March 2004.
The acquisition covers ING’s cash equity sales, equity trading, facilitation trading, execution, research and equity capital markets businesses across more than 10 Asian countries including Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as ING’s Asian sales and trading desks in London, New York and other European and North American locations.
The Baker & McKenzie team was led by David Fleming and Milton Cheng, partners in the M&A group in Hong Kong. They were supported by Baker & McKenzie lawyers based across multiple Asian jurisdictions, and also in the USA and Europe.
Commenting on the deal, Milton Cheng said, “We are delighted to have had this opportunity to act as lead counsel to Macquarie on this major deal. Given the number of jurisdictions involved, the complexity of the legal and regulatory issues, and the speed with which the transaction was negotiated and signed and due diligence completed, the deal required efficient coordination and commitment of our resources across the region.” David Fleming, who is also the Managing Partner of Baker & McKenzie’s Hong Kong office, added, “We are very happy to have assisted Macquarie in this landmark deal, and are excited at the opportunity to work with Macquarie in growing its businesses in the Asia-Pacific region.”
