DeHeng Represents E-Town in Milestone Acquisition
November 9, 2010, Pacific Century Motors (“PCM”), a corporation established by Pacific Century Motor, Inc. and Beijing E-Town International Investment & Development Co., Ltd (“E-Town”), announced the consummation of its acquisition of Nexteer Automotive (“Nexteer”), an automotive parts supplier owned by General Motor. Nexteer is the world’s third-largest company in sales of driveshaft components and the fourth-largest manufacturer of automobile steering systems. It has 20 manufacturing plants, 3 engineering centers, 2 test tracks and 11 customer service centers in 7 countries. Its customers include General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Fiat.
With a purchase price of over $480 million U.S. dollars, this acquisition is the biggest overseas acquisition in Chinese auto parts industry. The acquisition has been broadly reported worldwide. It marks General Motor’s attempt to divest its automotive parts business and transfer the manufacture of steering systems to China.
DeHeng served as legal counsel to E-town in this acquisition. Previously, due to the heightened scrutiny over foreign investments, a number of proposed acquisitions of U.S. business by Chinese enterprises have been blocked by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”). DeHeng is pleased to guide E-Town though the nexus of compliance issues pursuant to the applicable U.S. laws and regulations and secure all required governmental approvals for the acquisition.
DeHeng is experienced in cross-border mergers and acquisitions and capital investments and prides itself on its sophisticated legal services. Its team in the Nexteer deal was headed by Xiaomin Chen, DeHeng’s Global Partner and David Chen, Partner and Head of DeHeng’s Foreign Direct Investment Practice.