Debevoise & Plimpton has advised the Ant Group on its agreements with Mail.ru Group, USM, Russian Direct Investment Fund, and MegaFon to create payments and financial services joint ventures.
The deals are expected to close in 2021 after satisfying a number of conditions including third-party approvals. Upon completion, Russian shareholders will own the majority stakes in both the PJV and FSJV.
Debevoise & Plimpton’s team included in Hong Kong, Partner Edwin Northover, Associates Wen-Wei Lai and Tiffany Wu, and International Counsel Alison Lee; in Washington DC, Associate Robert Dura; in London, Partner Richard Ward and Associate Heather Atkins; and in Moscow, Associates Nikolay Kiselev and Anastasia Magid and International Counsel Evgeny Samoylov.
Debevoise did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.
Editor's note: After this article was published, Akin Gump announced that it had advised Mail.ru on the deal. The firm's team included London-based Partner Artem Faekov and Associate Alla Barford, Beijing-based Counsel Jingli Jiang, and Hong Kong-based Associate Janice Wong.
