Sidley represented Puyi Inc. (“Puyi”, NASDAQ: PUYI) and successfully completed its share exchange transactions with certain participating shareholders of Fanhua Inc. (“Fanhua”, NASDAQ: FANH), including Mr. Yinan Hu, co-chairman and CEO of Fanhua, and certain other executive officers, employees, and shareholders of Fanhua (collectively “Fanhua Participating Shareholders”). Upon completion of the transactions, Fanhua Participating Shareholders in aggregate owned 76.7% of Puyi’s issued and outstanding share capital, while Puyi owned 50.1% of Fanhua’s issued and outstanding share capital and became its largest shareholder. Fanhua became a subsidiary of Puyi, but remained as a separate company listed on Nasdaq.
Established in 2010 and listed on Nasdaq in 2019, Puyi is a comprehensive financial technology service group based on family financial asset allocation, focusing on providing personalized wealth management services for emerging middle-class and affluent families, comprehensive support services for financial planners, and diversified financial services for institutional clients. Established in 1999 and listed on Nasdaq in 2007, Fanhua is a leading independent insurance intermediary group in China, focusing on providing insurance-oriented family asset allocation services that cover customers’ full lifecycle and a one-stop service platform for individual sales agents and independent insurance intermediaries.
The share exchange transactions between Puyi and Fanhua reflect a strategic consolidation within the wealth management and insurance intermediary sectors in China. Puyi plans to change its English name from Puyi Inc. to Huapu Inc. and its Chinese name from 普益有限公司 to 华普控股集团有限公司, and also intends to change its ticker symbol from “PUYI” to “HPH”.
The Sidley team was led by partner Meng Ding. Other team members included counsel Liming Xu, managing associate Gilbert Han, and senior legal assistants Iris Lao and Jiangyuan Song.
