Appleby AWARDED 2011 'DEAL OF THE YEAR' BY CHINA BUSINESS LAW JOURNAL

The dispute was over Alibaba’s spinoff of Alipay, an electronic payment system.

Under the agreement, Alibaba Group will receive between US$2 billion to US$6 billion from any future IPO or sale of Alipay, while continuing to participate in Alipay’s future financial performance. In addition, Alipay will continue to provide payment processing services to Alibaba Group and its subsidiaries including TaoBao, China’s largest domestic e-commerce platform. The three parties negotiated a significant agreement which will serve the interests of all stakeholders, providing an amicable resolution to a potentially highly contentions dispute.

The Appleby team consisted of members from the Hong Kong and Cayman Islands offices and spread across the Corporate and Commercial and the Litigation and Insolvency teams. In Hong Kong, Partners Jeffrey Kirk and Judy Lee led the matter with assistance from Mark Cummings, Senior Associate and Victoria Chen, Associate. In Cayman, Partners, Stephen James and Andrew Bolton and Counsel, Tony Heaver-Wren provided Corporate and Litigation advice. Morrison & Foerster acted as US counsel.

The winning deals have been chosen subjectively by China Business Law Journal based on submissions received from law firms and evaluated not merely on deal size but also on uniqueness, complexity and broader interest.

For further information please contact: Diana Wong.