A team led by partner Wu Ming from Dacheng’s Shanghai office assisted AMER International Group in acquiring a molybdenum project owned by General Moly, Inc. The acquisition agreement was signed on April 17, 2015 in Guangzhou, which was witnessed by Penny Pritzker, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, among others.
General Moly, Inc. (“General Moly”) is a U.S.-based molybdenum mineral development, exploration, and mining company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange. It owns the most promising molybdenum asset worldwide. AMER International Group (“AMER”) is a private, China-based multinational company with a complete industry chain for nonferrous metals and was ranked 295th on the 2014 Fortune Global 500 list. AMER aims to become the majority shareholder of the company by purchasing General Moly’s equity securities.
A Hong Kong-based company served as the intermediary for the deal. A year ago, Wu assisted the Hong Kong company in the conclusion of a non-exclusion agreement with General Moly in which the Hong Kong company was entrusted to find a qualified investor in China to proceed with the acquisition. As the acquisition involved trading of securities of a US-listed company, the intermediate services were closely watched by US Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, according to US laws and regulations on public companies, all activities related to the transaction should comply with laws of jurisdictions (i.e., the US, Hong Kong and China.) of all participating parties, particularly their securities laws. Wu provided attorney’s opinion on the compliance of the deal to US counterparts and reviewed all the arrangements outlined in the bilateral agreement to ensure the successful delivery of the deal.
In outbound M&A, matchmaking, i.e., creation of a deal is a key. It has been proved that a lot of work needs to be done by Chinese attorneys for a promising offshore project to be introduced to potential Chinese investors and for both sides to reach consensus and ink the deal.
Beijing Dacheng Law Offices, LLP ("大成") is an independent law firm, and not a member or affiliate of Dentons. 大成 is a partnership law firm organized under the laws of the People’s Republic of China, and is Dentons' Preferred Law Firm in China, with offices in more than 50 locations throughout China. Dentons Group (a Swiss Verein) ("Dentons") is a separate international law firm with members and affiliates in more than 160 locations around the world, including Hong Kong SAR, China. For more information, please see dacheng.com/legal-notices or dentons.com/legal-notices.
