Dechert put together a cross-jurisdictional team to conduct a swift but polished effort in advising PPR, one of the world’s largest luxury groups, on its acquisition of Chinese fine jewellery maker Qeelin.
The transaction was led by Basil Hwang of Dechert’s Hong Kong office, with Jingzhou Tao of the Beijing office leading the China team, and Bruno Leroy of the Paris office leading the Paris team. They were assisted by nine of the firm’s lawyers in Hong Kong, Beijing and in Paris.
“We came into the deal after a soft commitment had been made, when exclusivity had been signed up,” Hwang told China Business Law Journal. “Everybody on the team did what they had to do very quickly, because there was very short timing on the exclusivity period. All in it took about a month, so it was actually very quick, which explains the big team.
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“We had a huge amount of material and data to get through, from accounting, tax, legal and IP matters, working with KPMG and PPR’s usual IP counsel.
“Of course, in China when you have a good thing, there’s always going to be a concern over whether your intellectual property is well protected, so obviously IP is something that formed a big part of our due diligence. We had our own IP counsel with Lewis Ho, checking multiple jurisdictions. In China, our ability to dig locally proved very useful to PPR.”
Hwang said the bulk of the work was driven out of Hong Kong, but the ability of the three jurisdictions to work closely was crucial under the pressure of such a short timeframe. “If there were questions of French law coming up from Paris, for example, across time zones, we could get quick responses, and that was pretty critical because we were under tremendous pressure to get to the signing because of the exclusivity period.”
The acquisition of Qeelin will give PPR strength and depth in its retail and luxury goods business in Asia and Europe, especially in China, a key region for its global growth.
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