In one of the first major tests of China’s recently-adopted antitrust law, the country’s government has rejected a $2.4bn (£1.7bn) bid by Coca-Cola to acquire Chinese beverage maker Huiyuan Juice Group.
If it had been permitted to proceed, the deal would have been the largest-ever takeover of a Chinese company by a multinational. The closely-watched deal saw Coca-Cola represented by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, whose team was led by Nicholas Norris in Hong Kong and Gregory Miao in Shanghai. Huiyuan instructed Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
