Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton and New York-based Hughes Hubbard & Reed have advised ride-hailing company Grab on a $2 billion investment from Chinese peer Didi Chuxing and Japan’s SoftBank Group, which turned to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Herbert Smith Freehills, respectively, for counsel.
Maples and Calder are also involved in the deal, serving as Didi's Cayman Islands counsel.
According to Reuters, Grab operates private car, motorcycle, taxi and carpooling services across seven countries with 1.1 million drivers. The company said it has a market share of 95 percent in third-party taxi-hailing and 71 percent in private-vehicle hailing in Southeast Asia.
Both Didi and SoftBank are existing investors, and their investment, coupled with $500 million from others, will be Southeast Asia's largest-ever single round of fundraising, claimed Grab.
“With their support, Grab will achieve an unassailable market lead in ride-sharing, and build on this to make GrabPay the payment solution of choice for Southeast Asia,” Anthony Tan, group chief executive officer and Grab co-founder, said in a statement.
A person close to the Singapore-based firm told Reuters the investments would value Grab at $6 billion.
The Paul Weiss team included corporate partners Judie Ng Shortell, Jack Lange and Betty Yap, as well as counsel Marta Kelly. Partner Richard Spooner handled the transaction for Maples.
