The antitrust practice at Clifford Chance LLP advises both multinational and national clients on a range of issues such as high-profile, global joint acquisitions, Asian regional deals, and restructuring and mergers. Yong Bai leads the practice, utilising his previous experience at MOFCOM to advise clients on the full spectrum of antitrust issues. Foreign legal counsel Dayu Man (New York qualified) joined the Hong Kong office in 2022, so strengthening the team's expertise in global merger control practices. Zibo Liu acts as counsel on merger controls, antitrust investigations, and mock dawn raids.  

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Clifford Chance LLP have enriched experience in handling complex and high-profile merger filings both in China and globally. They frequently work on complicated multi-jurisdictional filings for leading Chinese clients for their overseas investments across the globe.’

  • ‘Yong Bai, Dayu Man and Zibo Liu are experienced lawyers in the antitrust practice in China. They form a highly diversified team with strong legal skills and commercial awareness. ’

  • ‘The team is very precise about anti-monopoly policies and businesses of overseas countries and can meet the needs and concerns of customers. They respond to customer concerns efficiently. Due to the team's outstanding capabilities and rich experience it can predict well the approval time of the relevant countries' governments.'

  • ‘Clifford Chance LLP has the strongest comprehensive ability in domestic and international project anti-monopoly concentration declarations.’

Key clients

  • Airbus
  • China Baowu Steel Group
  • China Three Gorges Spain
  • Abbott
  • Permira
  • Volkswagen (China) Investment Co.
  • Tencent
  • Carrefour
  • Hang Seng Bank Limited
  • ORIX Corporation

Work highlights

  • Advised Airbus, Safran, and Tikehau Investment Management on their joint acquisition of Aubert & Duval, a strategic supplier of critical parts and materials.
  • Advised China Baowu Steel Group on its acquisition of 100% interest in Sinosteel Group Corporation, both are fully owned by Central SASAC.
  • Advising Abbott on a resale price maintenance (RPM) investigation led by the Shanghai administration for market regulation.

Lawyers

Leading associates
Rising stars with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Clifford Chance LLP
Yong Bai is a partner in the Antitrust Group of Clifford Chance. He specializes in antitrust and competition issues and has more than 10 years of experience advising Chinese and multinational corporations on merger control, foreign investment regulatory matters and investigations across a range of industries. Yong joined Clifford Chance in 2010 and became a partner since 2018. Prior to joining Clifford Chance, he worked at the PRC's Ministry of Commerce. Yong is admitted in New York and also holds a PRC legal professional qualification certificate (currently not a PRC practising lawyer). Yong is a native Mandarin speaker and fluent in English.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Yong Bai

Other key lawyers

Dayu Man, Zibo Liu