A buyer group consisting of Carlyle and Huo’s Group has recently signed the relevant share purchase agreements with Shell China and its affiliate to acquire 75% equity stake in Tongyi Lubricants. Subject to regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2015 or early 2016.

This is the first divestment of Shell Group within China according to reports and the proposed sale has attracted quite a few leading industrial and institutional investors such as Warren E. Buffett, SK Group, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation, among others. Teamed with Tongyi Lubricants’ founding shareholder Huo’s Group and facilitated by the financing support from the Bank of China, Carlyle finally secured the deal successfully through a fierce competition process.

Tongyi Lubricants is one of the leading lubricant product manufacturers in the PRC market and has been providing a series of high quality petroleum and chemical products under the well-known brand name of “Tongyi”. With three manufacturing plants in Beijing, Xianyang of Shaanxi province and Wuxi of Jiangsu province, Tongyi Lubricants has been the largest international supplier for lubricant products within China for years.

As the PRC legal counsel to the buyer group, Han Yi lawyers worked closely with the international co-counsel to the buyer group and assisted with the PRC legal due diligence review on Tongyi Lubricants’ onshore operations, deal structural analysis and advice, pre-signing restructurings, financing arrangement, and documentation and negotiation support for all relevant transaction documents.