Clifford Chance has advised Fosun Industrial Holdings Limited, a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong listed Fosun International Limited, on its offer to acquire all of the registered no-par value ordinary shares of Hauck & Aufhäuser Privatbankiers KGaA (Germany). The purchase price amounts to a maximum of EUR 210 million. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of the relevant financial authorities.

The offer has already been accepted by a number of shareholders of Hauck & Aufhäuser which hold more than 80% of the shares.

"We are delighted to assist Fosun in its most recent step of global expansion," said Kelly Gregory, Shanghai-based partner who led a cross-border team advising on the transaction.

Kelly was supported by partner Glen Ma and associate Richard Cui. The German team was led by partners Dr Stefanie Tetz, Dr Marc Benzler, Dr Andre Schwanna and counsel Gwendolyn Muller.

The acquisition will enhance Fosun's capabilities of providing financial services in Europe, in the areas of private banking, asset management, financial markets and fund custody services, to individual, corporate and institutional clients, particularly targeting small-and mid-cap enterprises.

The principal businesses of Fosun include integrated finance (insurance, investment asset management and other financial business) and industrial operations (health, happy lifestyle, steel, property development and sales and resources).

Hauck & Aufhäuser is one of the few independent private banks in Germany with more than 200 years history. It is organized into the business segments of private banking and asset management, asset servicing, financial markets services and lending business.