Sunland Law Firm

Managing Partners:Mingruo ZHANG

Number of Partners:9

Number of Lawyers:29

Languages: Chinese, English

FIRM OVERVIEW

Sunland Law Firm is a full-service law firm specializing in the practice of capital markets, intellectual property, international trade and competition, and corporate affairs. Working on a team basis, the firm makes the best use of the experience and expertise of its lawyers and provide comprehensive personalized legal services according to the clients’ requirements. Sunland International Trade and Competition team (the former is Broad & Bright antitrust team) is one of the leading legal teams in antitrust practice in China.

MAIN AREAS OF PRACTICE

Antitrust and Competition

4 partners; 11fee earners based in Beijing and Hong Kong.

Since August 1, 2008, MOFCOM/SAMR has cleared over 4,800 filings to date, out of which Sunland International Trade and Competition team has represented hundreds of fillings, many of which are high profile or significant cases. Sunland International Trade and Competition team is one of the domestic legal teams that have handled most cases in China.

In MOFCOM/SAMR’s 58conditional approvals so far, Sunland International Trade and Competition team handled around one half of the cases, including China’s first conditional approval of Inbev’s acquisition of Amnheuser-Busch.

Representative cases handled by Sunland International Trade and Competition team:

- In 2009, Sunland International Trade and Competition team represented Coca-cola in its acquisition of Huiyuan case, which is one of the most complicated filings in China and involved political concerns.

- In 2015, Sunland International Trade and Competition team assisted Seagate in successfully obtaining approval by MOFCOM to lift its 'hold separate' restriction, which is the first case where the “hold separate” conditions were completely released.

- Also in 2015, Sunland International Trade and Competition team represented NXP in its acquisition of Freescale, which is the first conditional approval of MOFCOM where the “upfront buyer” situation was involved in the divestment remedy.

- In 2017, Sunland International Trade and Competition team represented five of the seven cases that were conditionally approved by MOFCOM.

- In 2018, Sunland International Trade and Competition team represented United Technologies in the United Technologies/Rockwell Collins case. This case was awarded 'Merger Control Matter of the Year – Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa' at the GCR 9th Annual Awards Ceremony on March 26th, 2019, and is the second time that Sunland International Trade and Competition team has won this important award since the team’s work on Seagate/Samsung in 2011.

- In2019, Sunland International Trade and Competition team represented Aleris Corporation in the Novelis/Aleris case, which received its conditional approval on December 20, 2019.

- In 2020, Sunland International Trade and Competition team advised on Infineon/Cypress Semiconductor (the largest deal in the semi-conductor industry in 2019) and Nvidia/Mellanox Technologies (the second largest deal in the semi-conductor industry in 2019), two of the four conditional cases that SAMR approved in 2020. In 2020, Sunland International Trade and Competition team also worked on IBM/Red Hat and GSK/Pfizer consumer health business that both won the GCR award of Merger Control Matter of the Year, which marks the third and fourth time that Sunland International Trade and Competition team receives this award.

- In2021, Sunlandadvised on Cisco/Acacia and ITW/MTS transaction to obtain SAMR’s conditional clearance, representing 50% of the total number of conditional clearances that SAMR announced in Year 2021.

- In2022, Sunland advised on one of the high profile semiconductor deals, the AMD/Xilinx transaction, and assisted client with obtaining SAMR’s conditional approval.

Sunland International Trade and Competition team has also successfully assisted clients in obtaining unconditional clearance in many high profile and complicated filings in China, including the first hostile takeover filing in China.

Sunland International Trade and Competition team has also advised many clients on various antitrust investigations, including representing clients in price-related investigations initiated by National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and non-price related investigations led by the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) before the institutional reform. After the institutional reform, such investigations have been transferred to SAMR.

In addition, Sunland International Trade and Competition team has extensive experience in advising international companies in compliance with the AML Sunland International Trade and Competition Team has assisted clients in conducting in-depth internal antitrust audits in view of monopolistic conduct and has also provided periodic review/assessment of the daily operations of clients. These particularly include legal advice or audit services in relation to vertical agreements/conduct such as exclusive/non-exclusive distribution agreements, resale price maintenance, etc.

Key Clients:Most of our clients are multinational companies in various industries including chemical, machinery, electronic, medical, food, drink, automobile, information technology, such as Coca-Cola, HP, Tencent and United Technologies.

Contact Name:Yao FENG/Yunfeng XING/Xi Xia

Tel:+86 10 65958667

E-mail:[email protected]

INTERNATIONAL WORK:

Most of the aforementioned work of Sunland International Trade and Competition team involve foreign companies.

OFFICES

Beijing International Trade and Competition team Office: Room1905，North Tower of Beijing Kaisa Plaza, No.86 Jianguo Avenue, Chaoyang , Beijing, 100025,China

Tel:+86 10 65958667

Beijing Silver Tower Office:31/F Beijing Sliver Tower,No.2 Dong San Huan North Road,Chaoyang District,Beijing,100027,China

Tel:+86 10 64609388