The Simpson Thacher team celebrates with Alibaba outside the NYSE on the first day of trading
Foreground, left to right: Dan Dees, Goldman Sachs; Vikram Malhotra, Credit Suisse; Daniel Auerbach, Fidelity Growth Partners Asia; Bill Hinman, Simpson Thacher; Jack Ma, Alibaba Group; Joe Tsai, Alibaba Group; Leiming Chen, Simpson Thacher; Claire Suddens-Spiers, Rothschild; Tim Steinert, Alibaba Group
Reuters/Lucas Jackson
When Alibaba Group determined to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in what was to be the largest IPO in history, the company turned to Simpson Thacher and its team of experienced capital markets lawyers for advice. The offering was led by three partners who seamlessly brought together attorneys across time-zones in our Hong Kong, Beijing and Palo Alto offices, with significant support from our team in New York.
Driven by a confluence of expertise, commercial savvy and in-depth knowledge of the capital markets and technology companies, our ability to successfully advise on the landmark matter is a testament to the Firm’s working culture. We collaborate across offices, disciplines, borders and regulatory regimes to deliver integrated, effective advice on matters of the highest stakes. Our work for Alibaba on its IPO leveraged the Firm’s expertise across multiple offices and practice areas, from our experience advising technology companies, to our transactional abilities in Asia and the U.S., to our facility with IP, executive compensation and litigation issues.
Alibaba’s US$25 billion IPO is the latest in a series of record-breaking tech IPOs on which the Firm has advised. Our history in the tech IPO space includes Facebook’s IPO in 2012 and Google’s IPO in 2004 (both of which were the largest tech IPOs ever at the time), as well as Alibaba.com’s IPO in Hong Kong in 2007.
Beyond the headlines generated by the unprecedented IPO, the success of our relationship with Alibaba reflects both the collaborative spirit that underpins the working culture of Simpson Thacher and our commitment to delivering thoughtful multijurisdictional solutions to clients.
The Simpson Thacher team advising on the IPO was led by Leiming Chen in Hong Kong, Daniel Fertig in Beijing and Bill Hinman in Palo Alto. Please click here for more information on this matter.