Grace Tso
Biography
Grace Tso is a partner in Baker McKenzie’s Hong Kong office. She is also the lead for Asia Pacific Consumer Goods & Retail industry. She has completed an attorney transfer program in the Chicago office.
Practice Focus
Grace’s practice focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions for foreign investors and foreign direct investment into China and Hong Kong. She also advises multinational companies on the planning and implementation of multi-country corporate restructuring projects.
Representative Legal Matters
Reorganization / Carve-out
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Advised Advent International on the carve-out of Laird Thermal Systems business from the other business Laird Performance Materials business in China.
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Advised Abbott Laboratories in the spin-off of its research-based pharmaceutical business and the formation of a new publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company, AbbVie Inc.
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Advised Baxter International on its USD 21 billion spinoff of its biopharmaceutical division (now Baxalta) in China and Hong Kong.
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Acted for Emerson Electric Co. in the China and Hong Kong portions of the USD 4 billion sale of its Network Power business to Platinum Equity and the pre-spin off restructuring.
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Acted for Emerson Electric Co. in the China and Hong Kong portions of the USD 1.2 billion sale of its Leroy-Somer and Control Techniques business units to Nidec Corporation and the pre-spin off restructuring.
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Acted for Johnson Controls in carve-out of automotive seating business (now Adient).
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Advised Emerson on the USD 14 billion sale of its Climate Technologies business to Blackstone.
M&A
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Advised Unilever Prestige on its e-commerce related joint venture with Hangzhou Golong Holding Co., Ltd. for the distribution of certain Prestige brands products in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
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Advised Mizuho Financial Group on the acquisition of an aircraft leasing business from Ping An International Financial Leasing and to enter into a joint venture with Ping An to form the newly-named leasing company Clover Aviation Capital.
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Advised Mitsui-Soko Holdings Co., Ltd. on the acquisition of freight-forwarding business from Prime Cargo in China.
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Advised METRO AG on the establishment of a strategic partnership with Wumei Technology Group (Wumei), a leading retailer in China involving the sale of its entire stake in METRO China for EUR 1.9 billion to an investment vehicle of Wumei against cash and a 20% stake in the resulting joint venture.
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Acted for AkzoNobel in its buy-out of its decorative paint business in Hong Kong and China from Swire Industrial Limited.
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Advised Tencent on its joint venture with other key investors such as ICBC, HKEx and Hillhouse.
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Law Society of Hong Kong
Admissions
- England & Wales~United Kingdom
- Hong Kong
Education
- The University of Hong Kong (P.C.LL.)
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Master of Science)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (B.S. Computer Science, Honors)
- Manchester Metropolitan University (C.P.E.)
Languages
- Cantonese
- English
- Mandarin
Previous Offices
- Chicago