Simmons & Simmons has advised Arthur J. Gallagher, the fourth largest insurance brokerage in the world, on its proposed establishment of a joint venture insurance brokerage firm with China’s Jiang Tai Insurance Brokers.

The joint venture will operate as Jiang Tai Re, and its initial offering in China will focus on reinsurance and specialty lines.

This will be the first joint venture insurance broker launched in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Commenting on the joint venture, partner Alan Xu, said: ‘‘we are delighted to have worked with Arthur J. Gallagher on this ground-breaking deal to form the first major financial joint venture in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and also China's first reinsurance broker. We worked to very tight timescales to complete the transaction and the experience of working with Shanghai FTZ and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission will be valuable to our financial institutions clients in general and our insurance clients in particular.’’

The team was led by Shanghai based corporate partner Alan Xu and included supervising associate Simon Zhu, associate Chen Feng, legal executive Zengyan Wang and trainee Montanna Cheng.