Paul Boltz is a partner in the Hong Kong office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and a member of the firm’s Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions Groups.
With more than 20 years of experience in Asia, Mr. Boltz represents issuers and underwriters in U.S. and Hong Kong IPOs and advises U.S. and Hong Kong listed and pre-IPO companies in M&A, joint ventures, PIPEs and registered secondary offerings, privatizations and compliance matters. He represents numerous companies in the high-tech and life sciences sectors and has significant experience representing sovereign and institutional investors in their investing activities in Asia and elsewhere. He is also a guest lecturer on U.S. securities law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong.
Mr. Boltz has been recognized as a leading practitioner in his areas of practice by various industry publications, including Legal 500 and IFLR1000.
Mr. Boltz gained his J.D. from Villanova University School of Law in 1996 and his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. He is admitted to practice in Hong Kong, the State of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Representative Matters
- HUTCHMED (China) Limited (NASDAQ Global Select Market/AIM: HCM; Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 0013) (Hutchmed), a China-based health care group and one of the largest biotech companies in Asia, in:
- US$112 million U.S. IPO and listing on NASDAQ,
- US$535 million IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and global offering,
- numerous SEC registered follow on offerings totaling more than US$470 million, and
- US$400 million in various PIPE offerings to General Atlantic, Baring Private Equity and CPPIB.
- Also represented its largest shareholder, CK Hutchinson Holdings, a well-known multinational conglomerate based in Hong Kong, in its SEC registered underwritten sales of US$318 million of Hutchmed shares. Established in 2000, Hutchmed was publicly listed on London’s AIM market in 2006, on Nasdaq in 2016 and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2021 and is currently the only Asia-based company that is triple-listed in those three markets.
- NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ Global Select Market: NTES), one of China’s leading internet and online game services providers, in a wide range of corporate and compliance matters, including:
- the sale of NetEase’s cross-border e-commerce platform Kaola to Alibaba for approximately US$2 billion in cash and shares – named 2020 “TMT Deal of the Year” by China Law & Practice;
- U.S. and SEC counsel with respect to NetEase’s $3.1 billion global offering of share and related SEC filings – the offering was conducted in connection with NetEase’s dual secondary listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and coincided with the 20th anniversary of NetEase’s listing on NASDAQ;
- the establishment of a multi-pronged joint collaboration between NetEase and Marvel Entertainment to create new original entertainment, including games and comic books based on Marvel’s universe of superhero characters for use in China and globally;
- the establishment of a joint venture with Mattel, Inc. to form a publishing and development game studio, Mattel163, leveraging Mattel’s global brands;
- the establishment of an onshore/offshore joint venture with Blizzard Entertainment for the operation of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and many other global games in China;
- NetEase’s strategic investment in Bungie, a US-based developer of games such as the popular Halo and Destiny series;
- multiple rounds of private equity financings in NetEase’s online music streaming platform NetEase Cloud Music; and
- NetEase’s Rule 144A/Reg S convertible notes offering.
- Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ Global Select Market: MLCO), a developer, owner and operator of casino gaming and entertainment resort facilities in Asia and Europe, in its global offering of 5.375% Senior Notes due 2029 and in various SEC compliance and corporate transactional matters.
- MYOB Group Limited, Australia and New Zealand’s leading accounting software provider, as U.S. counsel in its global offering of shares and listing on the Australian Stock Exchange. The offering to retail and institutional investors raised total proceeds of approximately A$833 million, valuing the company at a total enterprise value of more than A$2.5 billion, and was the largest IPO by a software company ever completed in Australia.
- CPPIB in its cornerstone investment in the Hong Kong IPO of Kuaishou, the world’s second-largest video sharing platform.
- CompareAsiaGroup, Asia’s leading financial management platform, in multiple rounds of private equity financings.
- Numerous private equity sponsors and global asset managers in a wide range of securities matters, including representing the proprietary investment arm of an international investment bank in its block sales of shareholdings in multiple NYSE listed companies, Bain Capital, as selling shareholder, in the IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange of its portfolio company Skylark Co., Ltd., and Sequoia Capital and DCM in their U.S. registered secondary offering of shares of Vipshop Holdings (NYSE: VIPS).
- Asian- and Middle-Eastern based sovereign investors in their investments and divestments in Asian markets.
- An ad hoc group of noteholders with respect to the U.S. securities law and listing rules aspects of the restructuring of notes issued by LDK Solar. Named 2015 “Finance Deal of the Year for Restructuring & Insolvency” by The Asian Lawyer.
- DYNAM JAPAN HOLDINGS Co., Ltd. (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 6889) as its international counsel in its listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and concurrent Reg S/Rule 144A global offering. The IPO is notable in that DYNAM is the first Japanese company to ever have a primary listing in the Hong Kong market.
- MicroPort Scientific Corporation (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 853) China’s leading minimally invasive medical device manufacturer, in its initial listing in Hong Kong and concurrent global offering.
- The Special Committee of Independent Directors of NASDAQ-listed ChinaEdu Corp. in connection with its privatization by members of the company’s management and McGraw-Hill Education.
- The buyer consortiums in the take privates of ShangPharma (NYSE) and Ninetowns Internet Technology Group (NASDAQ).
- PECO Energy Transition Trust in its US$5.1 billion U.S. registered public offering of transition bonds, representing the right to receive revenue from the transmission of electricity from a network of nuclear power plants in the United States.
Presentations
- “2020 Virtual SEC Conference: An Accounting and Reporting Update for U.S. Listed Companies,” Presenter, September 2020
- “Listing, Compliance and Corporate Governance,” Presenter, Forum on Corporate Governance for Listed Companies – sponsored by the Chamber of Hong Kong Listed Companies, Shenzhen, May 2014
- “China, the Internet & Your Business: Navigating Deals in the World’s Largest and Most Complicated Internet, Market,” Presenter, Licensing Executives Society – Silicon Valley Chapter seminar, Palo Alto, CA, June 2013