Here’s the story from the Australian …..
AFTER almost doubling the value of its mergers and acquisitions work in China, King & Wood Mallesons has become the dominant player in the most lucrative part of that country’s market for legal services.
King & Wood Mallesons has topped the rankings for M&A work in China after handling 33 transactions worth $US28.5 billion ($30.29bn) in the first three quarters of the year.
This was a 96 per cent increase over the value of deals handled by the firm in the previous corresponding period.
The surge in the firm’s work linked to China comes 19 months after King & Wood Mallesons was created by the merger of Australia’s Mallesons Stephen Jaques with China’s King & Wood.
It also comes one year after the firm was second last in the rankings of China’s top 15 M&A law firms published by Mergermarket.
The strong growth in the firm’s transactional work in China means the value of its deals in that country was about four times the size of its deals within Australia that were worth $7.5bn, down 7.5 per cent on the previous corresponding period.
Big growth in its China-related work also runs counter to the overall trend for M&A work throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Mergermarket’s figures show that deals throughout the region – excluding Japan – were down by 1.7 per cent over the same period in the previous year to $US259.7bn. But it says full-year activity is on target to match the 2012 total.
This would put an end to a trend of consecutive years of reduced M&A activity in the Asia-Pacific region that began in 2010, Mergermarket says.
M&A activity within Australia was worth $35.5bn, which is on par with the same period last year.
Tim Bednall, King & Wood Mallesons’ managing partner for mergers and acquisitions, said a “significant turnaround” had already arrived for his firm.
“We had seen a decline in the last two quarters of last calendar year and the first quarter of this year and that has certainly turned around for us,” he said.
The firm’s pipeline of expected deals was unlikely to slow in the next quarter, he said.
“I don’t want to look too far ahead but the December quarter is looking great right across the network,” Mr Bednall said.
The surge in China-related work for King & Wood Mallesons was not enough to dislodge Herbert Smith Freehills from top place for the overall value of M&A work in the Asia-Pacific.
Despite a 15.9 per cent decline in the value of its deals to $US34.7bn, the Asia-Pacific deals handled by Herbert Smith Freehills were still worth more than twice as much as its $13.4bn in Australian transactions.
The Australian tally made Herbert Smith Freehills this country’s top M&A firm, followed by Allens, Minter Ellison and King & Wood Mallesons.
Herbert Smith Freehills partner Simon Haddy said there were signs of “green shoots” after his firm also topped Mergermarket’s Asia-Pacific rankings for private equity buyouts with deals worth $6.5bn in the first three quarters – an increase of 710 per cent on the previous corresponding period.
“We have had some great success on the available work,” Mr Haddy said.
“We now get a broad sense of energy towards the transactional side of things. The thing we find very encouraging is the breadth and energy we are seeing from clients in terms of pre-launch.”
He said Herbert Smith Freehills had a better pipeline of expected deals than at this time last year, with interest coming from offshore, domestic corporates and financial investors. “I think there are green shoots,” he said.
“When people get on the phone to lawyers to start things they are serious about things.
“We feel bullish about the quality and the breadth of things.”
