We advised Yili on the acquisition of a controlling interest in Ausnutria

Davis Polk advised Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd on the acquisition of 34.33% of Ausnutria Dairy Corporation Ltd (HKEX: 1717) by way of purchase of existing shares from Citagri Easter Limited, BioEngine Capital Inc., Center Laboratories, Inc., and Dutch Dairy Investments HK Limited as the sellers and subscription of new shares of Ausnutria, with a total consideration valued at approximately HK$6.25 billion. The transaction was announced on October 27, 2021 and upon completion, Yili Group will make mandatory cash offers. CLSA Capital Markets Limited acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Yili Group in respect of the general offer. 

Davis Polk also advised Yili Group in connection with a US$1 billion syndicated term loan credit facility and a US$900 million term loan credit facility each obtained in relation to Yili Group’s acquisition of Ausnutria. Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A., Hong Kong acted as joint lead arrangers for the syndicated term loan credit facility and China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd. acted as the lender for the term loan credit facility. 

Yili Group is the largest dairy company in China, ranked among the world’s most successful dairy companies and consecutively ranked No. 1 in the Asian dairy industry in the past several years. Yili Group is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE: 600887). Ausnutria is principally engaged in the research and development, production, marketing and distribution of dairy and related products and nutrition products to its worldwide customers, particularly in China. Ausnutria is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX: 1717).

The Davis Polk corporate team includes partner Yang Chu, registered foreign lawyer Michael Zhuoran Xu and associate and Marco Cheng. The finance team included counsel Bingqing Pan and registered foreign lawyer Xin (Sheen) Xu. Members of the Davis Polk team are based in the Hong Kong office.

Copy link to share post