29 July 2021
Skadden advised DiDi Global, Inc., the world's leading mobility technology platform, on its initial public offering and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. DiDi Global offered 316,800,000 American Depositary Shares (ADSs), with each four ADSs representing one Class A ordinary share of the company, at a price to the public of US$14.00 per ADS for a total offering size of US$4.4 billion, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option to purchase up to an aggregate of 47,520,000 additional ADSs. Trading is expected to commence on June 30, 2021, under the symbol “DIDI.” The closing of the offering is expected to occur on July 2, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. This is the largest US IPO by a China-headquartered company since Alibaba's listing in 2014.
The Skadden team was led by corporate partners Julie Gao and Haiping Li, with Counsels Kenneth Chase and Yilin Xu, associates Sophie Zhao and Michael Jia, and international legal consultant Lei Zhang. Washington, D.C. partners Brian Breheny and Raquel Fox, and Of Counsel Andrew Brady, provided advice related to SEC matters. Partners Victor Hollender (New York) and Sean Shimamoto (Palo Alto), and associates Martin de Jong (Palo Alto) and Joshua Lin (New York) provided advice related to tax matters. Partners Bill Batchelor (Brussels) and Andrew Foster, and associates Kexin Li, Iacovos Antoniou (Brussels), Jessica Watters (Washington, D.C.), and Etienne Fumagalli (Brussels) provided advice related to antirust matters. Partner Geoffrey Chan, Counsel Xuan Zhang and associate Min Luo provided advice to the newly established DiDi executive partnership. Partner Paloma Wang and Counsel Kai Sun provided advice on Hong Kong law. Partner Adrian Deitz (Sydney) provided advice on matters relating to U.S. legal opinion. All attorneys are based in China, unless otherwise noted.
Ms. Gao has previously represented DiDi in several other significant transactions, including advising the company on its strategic merger with Kuaidi in 2015; its acquisition of UberChina in 2016; and its US$5.5 billion private financing in 2017.
For further information, please contact:
Grace Lord, Marketing & Communications Specialist, Skadden
grace.lord@skadden.com
