DLA Piper today announced the appointment of Steven Liu as Head of Corporate practice in Beijing. In this role, he will also oversee private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) matters for the region. DLA Piper has an established, 180-strong award-winning Greater China practice with more than 100 legal professionals in its Corporate practice alone. Steven has been a partner in the Group for three years and will continue to work with other leading lawyers in the team including Head of Corporate, Greater China – Mabel Lui; Chairman of China Group and Beijing Office Managing Partner – Dr Liu Wei; and Wan Li who joined the firm earlier this year as Head of Corporate in Shanghai. DLA Piper’s Greater China practice, with offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong provides seamless services to regional and international clients.
Steven has a broad background in corporate work. His particular areas of specialisation are PE/VC, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital markets. Steven began his career in Silicon Valley before relocating to China in 2006, and has substantial experience representing emerging growth and start-up companies, mature public companies, investment banks and private equity funds on a range of corporate legal transactions that include PE/VC financings, M&A, joint ventures and initial public offerings (IPOs) in China and the US.
Steven’s recent work includes leading the team that advised Datang Telecom in its US$171.8 million investment in SMIC, which won DLA Piper the title of “Asia Pacific M&A Law Firm of the Year” in 2009; and advising AsiaInfo Holdings on its US$733 million acquisition of Linkage Technologies, a major cross-border M&A transaction, which will create one of the largest software companies in China.
Steven has also led major PE/VC transactions in the region including advising Nature Wood Flooring on its US$100 million private equity financing from Morgan Stanley and IFC; Charm Communications in connection with its US$49.56 million pre-IPO strategic financing by Aegis Group plc; and Tiger Global on their recent investments in Xueersi Group, 360Buy.com, Vancl, Letao and Mtime. His capital markets work includes recent offerings for parties involved in QKL Stores’ US$39.675 million Nasdaq listing and VanceInfo’s US$59.73 million secondary and follow-on Nasdaq offering.
“I am delighted to be taking this new leadership position. We have a great support network among our team members in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong as well as other Asia and international offices. DLA Piper is well-positioned to serve our clients who will be making strategic outbound and inbound investments in Greater China and beyond,” said Steven.
Mabel Lui, Partner and Head of Corporate, Greater China of DLA Piper, said: “China is an active player in the global economic market. Given DLA Piper’s extensive track record in the global corporate as well as PE/VC space and our depth of experience in China, Steven’s appointment is further testimony to our status as a leading player in the market as our team continues to grow in line with our client’s business growth.”
Alastair Da Costa, Asia Managing Partner of DLA Piper, said: “I am glad that Steven will be leading our Beijing Corporate practice in Beijing. We are experiencing considerable corporate deal activity in China right now and Steven has proven himself as a strong leader. In the last week alone, our Greater China capital markets team has advised on Taifeng’s successful IPO listing on the Main Board of HK Stock Exchange as well as advised on an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange for China New Borun Corp, a leading PRC manufacturer of edible alcohol. Generally, we’ve found workflow between our Greater China practice and the broader Asia Pacific region, particularly Australia, is increasing and we expect deals to continue to grow not only in complexity and scale, but also in terms of reach to Asia regional and other global markets.
“We have a robust China Corporate group with extensive sector experience who cover every legal aspect to provide the solution-oriented advice each client needs to achieve their business strategy, however unique.”
DLA Piper currently has over 180 lawyers in Greater China and over 260 in Asia. The firm has been winning major awards including:
- “China CFO Most Trusted Law Firms” by CFO World magazine 2010
- “Asia Pacific M&A Law Firm of the Year” by Asia M&A Atlas Awards 2009
- “Asia Pacific Energy Sector Deal of the Year” by Asia M&A Atlas Awards 2009
- “Counselor of the Year 2009” by Top Capital Magazine Awards 2009 (3rd year in a row)
- “Venture Capital Market Lead Legal Adviser” by Zero2IPO Awards 2009 (4th year in a row)
- “M&A Deal of the Year 2009” by ALB Hong Kong Awards
- “Best Corporate Practice Law Firm – Asia” by Corporate Governance Asia Awards 2010 (5th year in a row)
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