JT&N advised Hebei Iron & Steel Group Co., Ltd. (“HBIS”) in the cooperation with Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (“IDC”) and China-Africa Development Fund (“CADFund”) with respect to the construction of a 500 tons iron and steel plant in South Africa (“South Africa Iron and Steel Project”). The South Africa Iron and Steel Project is by far the largest whole process iron and steel project invested and constructed overseas by Chinese iron and steel enterprises. JT&N team was led by Partner Zhihai Liu and Partner Xiaodong Zheng. Team members also include Ms. Huan Zheng, Ms. Jiangxia Lu and Ms. Junfeng Cui.
The South Africa Iron and Steel Project is a further cooperation in outbound investment between JT&N and HBIS, IDC and CADFund following the acquisition of 100% shares in Palabora Mining Company Limited (“PMC”) by a Chinese Consortium led by HBIS and included CADFund as a member (“PMC Acquisition”). JT&N acted as lead counsel and provided multi-facet legal services to the Chinese Consortium in the PMC Acquisition.
HBIS is a large state-owned iron & steel group company established by Hebei provincial government with its primary business in production of iron & steel and other related businesses including but not limited to natural resources, manufacturing, finance and logistics. HBIS is the largest iron and steel producer in China and the third largest iron and steel producer worldwide, of which the annual production capacity of crude steel is 50 million tons. HBIS has the most advanced smelting processing and technology in the world for the production of iron and steel and most elite management team. HBIS has been ranked as one of Fortune Global 500 Enterprises for the past five consecutive years and was ranked 271 in the Fortune Global 500 Enterprises of the year 2014.
IDC is a national development finance institution directly owned by South African government. IDC is set up by South African government in 1940 to promote its domestic industrial development and to be a leader in the development of its domestic industrial production capacity.
CADFund, the first Chinese private equity investment fund focusing on Africa, was announced at the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum as one of the Eight Measures for Cooperation with Africa.