Sidley represented Shanghai MicroPort MedBot (Group) Co., Ltd. (HKEX:2252) (MicroPort MedBot) as Hong Kong and U.S. counsel in its initial public offering (IPO) and H share listing on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX) under Chapter 18A of the Hong Kong Listing Rules. The offering raised HK$1.564 billion (US$201 million). J.P. Morgan and China International Capital Corporation Limited acted as joint sponsors, and cornerstone investors included Aspex, Hillhouse Funds, LAV, Snow Lake Funds and Accounts, Yorkool, CloudAlpha, and Artisan.
MicroPort MedBot is the first HKEX-listed, globally top-tier surgical robot company, dedicated to designing, developing, and commercializing surgical robots to assist surgeons in performing complex surgical procedures. It is the only company in the industry worldwide with a product portfolio covering the five major and fast-growing surgical specialties of laparoscopic, orthopedic, panvascular, natural orifice, and percutaneous surgical procedures, according to Frost & Sullivan.
Its three flagship products, Toumai® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot (Toumai), DFVision® 3D Electronic Laparoscope, and Honghu® Orthopedic Surgical Robot, have all been admitted to the NMPA’s innovative medical device special review and approval procedure, and are either approved or at the registration approval stage. Toumai is currently the first and only Chinese-developed four-arm laparoscopic surgical robot that has completed a registrational clinical trial, according to Frost & Sullivan.
The Sidley team is led by partners Constance Choy, a member of Sidley’s Management Committee and Executive Committee and the managing partner for the Asia Pacific region, Sherlyn Lau, the deputy head of our multidisciplinary China Corporate and Finance practice, Oliver Zhong, and Meng Ding. Other team members included counsel Claudia Yu; senior associates Amy Fok and Scarlet Feng; associates Sophie Gu, Weiya Mu, and Yiming Chen; senior legal manager Emily Wang; China advisor Jiefei Yao; and senior legal assistant Jie Lian. New York-based senior counsel Brian Kaplowitz and counsel Carla Teodoro provided U.S. Investment Company Act advice, and partner Nicholas Brown and associates Christian Molander-Barraza and Alvin Wang provided U.S. tax advice.
The listing represented a spinoff of the robotics-specialized subsidiary from MicroPort Scientific Corporation (HKEX:0853) (MicroPort), the parent company’s second spinoff listing in 2021. In February, Sidley also acted for MicroPort CardioFlow Medtech Corporation (HKEX:2160) as Hong Kong and U.S. counsel in its successful spinoff listing on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
Since the launch of Hong Kong’s Chapter 18A listing regime in April 2018, Sidley has been a market leader in advising biotech IPOs in Hong Kong. According to the most recent data compiled by RyanBen Capital, Sidley remains the highest ranked legal adviser in the Hong Kong IPO league table by deal volume in the past 24 months (October 2019 to September 2021).
Sidley is one of the very few international law firms having a unique sector focus on life sciences, with more than 200 lawyers globally focused on the practice. Based on deep domain knowledge, Sidley provides a full spectrum of legal services to life sciences clients throughout their lifecycles, from formation, corporate governance, and compliance, to collaboration and licensing, registration and commercialization, to VC/PE investments, IPOs, and other equity/debt financings, as well as domestic and cross-border M&A.