Guannan is a Partner of Haiwen & Partners. She has extensive experience in advising Chinese enterprises, multinational corporations, private equity firms and other strategic and financial investors in cross-border mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions.
Guannan joined Haiwen in March 2024. Before joining Haiwen, she worked in one of the “Magic Circle” firms Linklaters LLP from 2013 to 2023 and was a managing associate of Linklaters Corporate M&A practice.
In the area of M&A transactions, Guannan has extensively represented various Chinese SOEs, sovereign investment funds, private enterprises and other investment institutions in their outbound investments and auction buyouts in many different countries and regions. Guannan also advised numerous international institutions and multinational corporations in their strategic investments, joint ventures, disposals, exits and reorganisations in China.
In the area of private equity transactions, Guannan has represented various private equity firms and financial sponsors in their growth or venture capital investments, buyout and exit transactions in China and abroad. Guannan also had secondment with Hillhouse in 2022, primarily working on cross-border buyout and auction deals, exit transactions and growth or venture capital investments in the US of other regions.
Guannan’s recent M&A experience includes advising:
● a number of Chinese sovereign investment funds on their equity investments and acquisitions in various countries and regions including South America, Africa, the Mid-East and Europe, covering a wide range of sectors including energy, natural resources, infrastructure and mining etc.;
● Baiyin Nonferrous Group on its acquisition of 100% interest in Serrote copper-gold mine project in Brazil operated by Minera??o Vale Verde from Appian Capital (a UK based investment firm focusing on mining industries);
● China Merchants Port on its acquisition by way of auction of 90% shares in TCP, the second largest container terminal in Brazil, from Advent International and certain founding shareholders
● China Merchants Port on its proposed auction bid for 50% or a controlling stake in a bulk terminal in Brazil;
● China Harbour on its acquisition of a controlling stake in Lekki Port project company (which holds a 45-year concession to develop and operate the Lekki Port in Nigeria) from Singapore based Tolaram Group, and its minority investment and joint venture arrangement with CMA CGM with respect to the sub-concessionaire of Lekki Port;
● China Harbour on its proposed acquisition of a controlling stake in an Indonesian listed port group structured by combination of private purchase and rights issue;
● China Yangtze Power on its auction bid for 100% shares in a power transmission and distribution company in Peru;
● TikTok on the structuring of its strategic development of e-commerce business in Indonesia, including related structural and regulatory issues relating to its US$1.5 billion acquisition of controlling stake in Tokopedia;
● DiDi Chuxing on its restructuring and disposal of smart cockpit and parking businesses to Nanjing Autoai Technology Co., Ltd. via a share exchange transaction, associated with a capital increase in cash by DiDi and NAVINFO (Beijing) Technologies Co., Ltd. in Nanjing Autoai;
● Compass Group (a UK based multi-national catering service provider) on its auction sale of entire catering service business in China (including the potential pre-sale restructuring) to Sodexo Group;
● Unilever on its intra-group reorganization of its global (including China) tea business for sale by auction to CVC Capital Partners;
● ANZ Banking Group on its disposal of retail banking and wealth management businesses in Asia (including China) to DBS；
● various private equity investors including Hillhouse, Sofina, Fidelity, CITIC Securities etc, on a number of PE/VC investments covering sectors including renewable energy, bio tech, healthcare, consumer products, hard tech, artificial intelligence, education and business service etc.
Guannan is a NY State qualified lawyer.
Bachelor's Degree in Law and Bachelor's Degree Journalism from China University of Political Science and Law
LL.M. Degree in International Business Law from University of Montreal
LL.M. Degree from Columbia University
Guannan’s native language is Mandarin, and she speaks English fluently.
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