Chia Tai Co., Ltd. (CT Group), China Mobile Ltd. (China Mobile), CITIC Holdings, Itochu Corporation (Itochu) and Shanghai Information Investment Inc. (SII), signed a joint shareholders agreements and Memorandum of Cooperation to establish a Face to Face (F2F) Cayman Islands Holding Co., Ltd. to be used as the joint venture’s platform for equity incentive management. All four parties have agreed to invest approximately US$480 million in total to establish the joint venture.

With its core businesses in food and agriculture, retail merchandising and telecommunications, CT Group is a diversified multinational enterprise with a varied business portfolio, including finance, real estate, biopharmacy, auto and motorcycle. The newly established joint venture will focus on the opportunities in cross-border e-commerce in China. It is regarded as the first domestic cross-border e-commerce platform with a joint investment from several major industrial groups. Leveraging its combined capabilities and strengths in fund management, supply chain logistics, and broad customer reach, the joint venture will aim to create an innovative cross-border e-shopping platform and industry ecosphere, building on KJT.com, the first cross-border e-commerce platform in China.

King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) acted for CT Group, the lead investor in the joint venture, providing legal services throughout the project. We are currently also assisting all four investors with the antitrust filing to the Ministry of Commerce. The joint venture project was led by partners John Hou and Bob Mo (Guangzhou), while the antitrust team is being led by partner Hazel Yin (Beijing). Partners Simon Yung (Hong Kong) and Wang Jianxue (Guangzhou) also assisted with various aspects of the project.