24 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS CHINA • 亚洲法律杂志-中国版 SEPTEMBER 2023 经历疫情初期的爆发式增长后，全球及中国并购市场迎来了“至暗一年”。 伴随并购交易数量的下滑，交易的复杂程度却不断提升，所牵涉因素也愈发 多元。今年上榜ALB并购排名的律师事务所可谓在重压之下呈现出真正的专 业实力，他们也期待以勤奋、精进，陪伴并购市场迎来下一个春天。 After explosive growth in the early days of the pandemic, the pace of M&A transactions has slowed down drastically, global as well as in China. However, although the number of M&As is on the decline, the complexity of those transactions continues to increase, involving ever more diverse factors. The firms listed in this year’s ALB M&A Rankings have demonstrated real professional capabilities under tremendous pressure. They are also looking forward to the next M&A spring with diligence and hard work. RANKING BY: ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS, TEXT BY: HU YANGXIAOXIAO 排名：《亚洲法律杂志》，作者：胡阳潇潇 M&A RANKINGS 并购排名 2023 ALB CHINA M&A RANKINGS moved up in the rankings. Leading M&A firms continue to maintain their existing market advantages, while a small number of firms has truly spot opportunities amid crisis, and managed to significantly increase the number and the importance of the deals they are involved in. Market realities have been acutely felt by those in the legal services industry. Piao Yu, managing partner of corporate and M&A practice of Tian Yuan Law Firm, tells ALB: “Affected by the unstable fundamentals of the entire economy, the pace of M&A deal-making in the second half of last year and the first half of this year was relatively slow. However, the number of M&As is still on an upward trend overall. Deal-making has slowly It is no exaggeration to describe May 2022 and May 2023, the period covered by this year’s ALB China M&A Rankings, as the “darkest hour” of China’s M&A market. In the second half of 2022, pandemic control measures and infection waves in China made it difficult for many deals to advance due to objective factors. The first half of 2023, on the other hand, saw continuous interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and a weakening global economy. Against this backdrop, there have not been dramatic changes to the firms listed in the 2023 ALB China M&A Rankings. Compared to 2022, there are five new entries this year, and four firms have recovered in the first and second quarters of this year, and the number of M&As has gradually increased and accelerated in the third quarter.” According to Rong Yunlin, a partner in the Shanghai office of V&T Law Firm, the three-year pandemic and the sluggish market in the past year have, in fact, affected different types of clients differently. “In the past few years, the M&A projects of SOEs were still booming. This is because SOEs have certain KPIs to hit in terms of investment and other aspects. Although the projects may not have met expectations due to the pandemic, SOEs have not been disruptively affected in terms of their M&As.” As for private enterprises and listed companies, “some of them still did some investment and M&A projects, but they were generally not active.” At the same time, in the past few years, “M&As of foreign-invested enterprises have been greatly affected. At present, M&As are primarily concentrated on domestic enterprises,” says Rong. Selena She, partner of Llinks Law Offices, mainly represents funds, investment institutions and large enterprises in M&A transactions. According to her, in fiscal year 2022, she and her team participated in some large deals, and there had been no significant drop in business volume. This year, however, “the number of inquiries from clients and the speed at which we start new projects have decreased significantly... We are still under great pressure this year in terms of business pipeline.” At the same time, the industries and types of deal-making in which She is involved are also changing. Previously, she had led a large number of cross-border M&As in high-tech fields. “We had worked on four such deals in the past fiscal year, but none of them were eventually completed. Some deals failed to obtain approval from foreign governments although contracts had been signed, as a result of which clients had no choice but to give up. Since then, we have been seeing few cross-border transactions.” Although the M&A market in the past year has not been the best, lawyers
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