Maples and Calder, the Maples Group's law firm, was pleased to act as Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands counsel to Baidu, Inc. (the "Issuer") on its issue of an aggregate of US$650 million 1.720% notes due 2026 and US$300 million 2.375% notes due 2030, which closed on 9 October 2020. Despite the uncertainty of COVID-19, the existing US-Sino tensions and associated market volatility, there was enormous market interest in the offering with the book being oversubscribed multiple times.
Baidu Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider and is listed on NASDAQ.
A team based in the Group's law firm in Hong Kong acted as Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands counsel to Baidu. The team was led by Partner and Head of the Corporate practice in Asia, Matt Roberts and assisted by Associate Mindy Ho.
Commenting on the dual-tranche bond offering, Matt Roberts said, "We were delighted to once again advise our longstanding client Baidu on this significant bond offering. Despite the challenging times, we were especially pleased to see the market respond so positively and the success of the offering further demonstrates global investors support and confidence in Baidu."
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Han Kun Law Offices acted for the Issuer as US and PRC legal counsel respectively. Davis Polk & Wardwell and Jingtian & Gongcheng acted as US and PRC legal counsel respectively to the underwriters, Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C., BofA Securities, Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC.