Chinese investor buys Australian brand with legal giants’ advice

The $690m deal is the company’s first major outbound acquisition in the Australian healthcare industry

Chinese investor buys Australian brand with legal giants’ advice

Two legal giants acted as a Chinese company makes a major move in the country. 

King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) acted for By-Health on its acquisition of Life-Space Group, which was advised by Baker McKenzie, for $690m. The deal is the Shenzhen-listed company’s first major outbound acquisition in the Australian healthcare industry.

Life-Space operates the Evolution Health and Ultramix businesses. It also markets the Life-Space probiotics brand, which is sold in Australia and China. 

The deal is expected to close later this year, subject to regulatory approvals in both Australia and China. 

KWM fielded a cross-border team for the deal, which was led by partners Tiandi Zhang in China and Will Heath in Australia. The team included Yinghao Lv, Xiaoquan Yang, Rui Zhou, Seric Han, Qinglin Li, and Liang Qiu in China. In Australia, Andrew Deszcz, Michael Robertson, Rebecca Williams, and Jason Xu provided support. 

The Baker McKenzie team was led by partner Richard Lustig. The cross-border team also included Tracy Wut and Robert Wright in Hong Kong, as well as Toby Patten, Nicole Edwards, Lucinda Atkinson, and Rowena Baer in Melbourne.
 

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