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eLong Announces Going Private Deal With China E-dragon
- Client News
- February 4, 2016
As reported by The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, eLong, Inc., a Chinese mobile and online travel service provider, that it has agreed to be taken private by China E-dragon Holdings Ltd. At the closing of the transaction, China E-dragon Holdings will be owned by a consortium including Paul, Weiss client TCH Sapphire Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tencent Holdings Ltd, other existing shareholders and members of management. Under the terms of the agreement, eLong shareholders not in the buyer group will receive $9 in cash for each ordinary share of the company or $18 in cash for each American Depositary Share (ADS). The price represents a 24 percent premium to the closing price of eLong's ADS on July 31, the last trading day before the company announced it had a going-private proposal from TCH Sapphire.
To date, the buyer group, which includes C-Travel International Ltd., TCH Sapphire, Ocean Imagination L.P., Luxuriant Holdings Ltd. and Seagull Ltd., own about 78 percent of the outstanding shares. The deal is expected to close before the end of the second quarter.
The Paul, Weiss team representing Tencent and the buyer consortium included corporate partners Steven Williams and David Huntington and counsel Paul Donnelly; intellectual property counsel Menachem Kaplan; antitrust counsel Marta Kelly; and employee benefits partner Lawrence Witdorchic.