Partner movement continues at Kirkland HK

Partner movement continues at Kirkland HK

Private equity and M&A lawyer, Peng Yu joins Kirkland & Ellis' Hong Kong office as a partner from Ropes & Gray

Following the announcement in August 2021 of former SFC official Brian Ho will join the Hong Kong office, Yu is Kirkland's second newly appointed partner in the city in a few weeks. The firm has also lost two capital markets partners on Feb 2022: Howie Farn joined Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Li-Chien Wong joined HKEx, respectively.

Yu advises PE and corporate clients on private equity transactions, take-privates, PIPEs, growth capital investments, divestitures, joint ventures and other international transactions. China's Alibaba is Yu's most significant client; Yu advised the company on its $1.15 billion investment in Farfetch, its $1.38 billion PIPE investment in ZTO Express as well as its $1.4 billion takeovers of iKang Healthcare.

Among his other services was his advice to Baring Private Equity Asia on its purchase and later disposal of Weetabix Food Company for $1.8 billion and to Blackstone on its takeover of Pactera Technology International for $625 million.

Having joined Ropes in 2011, Yu spent 11 years there. His previous employment history includes Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Shearman & Sterling.

Now that Yu is in the Hong Kong office, Kirkland's total partners is 31.