DeHeng Law Offices, a Chinese law firm with operations in both domestic China and worldwide, has officially completed the merger between its Hong Kong branch and an associated local law firm to strengthen its services in the Asian financial hub.
The merger of its Hong Kong branch with Hong Kong’s Chungs Lawyers saw the combined venture rebranded as “DeHeng Law Offices (Hong Kong) LLP”, DeHeng announced in a statement.
The move could help DeHeng cement its presence in Hong Kong as a part of the firm’s global network of 51 offices across multiple Chinese cities and overseas locations including New York, Paris, Dubai, Brussels, and Silicon Valley.
Founded in January 1993 in Beijing, DeHeng set up its Hong Kong office in 2020 as its 43rd office across the globe to focus on serving domestic and international clients in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in southern China.
While its practice areas span banking & finance, real estate, antitrust, and bankruptcy & restructuring, a sizeable portion of DeHeng’s legal services focuses on capital markets, initial public offerings (IPOs), and mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
In China, the firm facilitated transactions involving technology firms like artificial intelligence (AI) giant SenseTime, medical devices maker TowardPi Medical Technology, and Hong Kong-listed SinoHytec, which produces hydrogen fuel cell engines.
More recently, DeHeng advised Goldstone Investment, an affiliate of China’s CITIC Securities, on its investment in a Series B round by Chinese self-driving solutions provider Hong Jing Drive in November 2022. In the same year, it facilitated insurer Ping An’s private equity arm Ping An Capital’s participation in Soterea’s Series B round. Soterea, which offers driving safety solutions to commercial vehicles in China, raised a total of 1.3 billion yuan ($189.4 million) in the deal to hit a valuation of nearly 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion).
The firm also participated in global transactions including a $100-million Series A round in Los Angeles-based footwear technology upstart Miracle Miles Group in June 2022.
Chungs Lawyers was set up in 2018 with the purpose of hosting the Chinese partner’s future operations in the city. Led by partners including Ernest Chung, Chungs Lawyers specialises in the provision of legal advice in Hong Kong relating to general commercial and corporate matters, capital markets, IPOs, cross-border M&A, and compliance matters of listed companies under the rules of the Hong Kong stock exchange.