Kirkland Represents ZG Group on the First De-SPAC Transaction in Hong Kong

Kirkland & Ellis represented ZG Group (formerly known as Zhaogang.com Inc), a leading iron & steel e-commerce platform in China, on its business combination with Aquila Acquisition Corporation (HKSE: 7836), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) listed in Hong Kong. The negotiated value of ZG Group in this transaction is HK$10,004,000,000, and the committed PIPE investment at signing is approximately HK$605 million. The transaction was signed and announced on August 31, 2023. Aquila was the first SPAC listed in Hong Kong and this is the first de-SPAC transaction in Hong Kong since the introduction of the SPAC listing regime in Hong Kong on January 1, 2022.

Read Aquila’s HKSE announcement

The Kirkland team was led by capital markets partners Steve Lin and Mengyu Lu, and transactional partner Joey Chau.