H. John Kao
Partner

Partner-in-Charge
Beijing

Contact

(T) +86.10.5866.1111
(F) +86.10.5866.1122

Education

  • William Mitchell College of Law (J.D. cum laude 1994; Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court Team); Virginia Military Institute (B.S. in Civil Engineering 1991)

Bar Admissions

  • Minnesota, District of Columbia, and registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office

John Kao represents clients on acquisition and investment transactions. He has advised Greater China-based clients in their overseas acquisitions and investments, as well as acquisitions and investments in Greater China by multinational companies, private equity firms, and venture capital firms. In addition, John advises clients on the formation of private equity and venture capital funds and on a wide array of legal issues and corporate matters in Greater China.

John's representative transactions include: Bayer Material Science's acquisition of Ure-Tech Group, Winbond Electronics' acquisition of National Semiconductor's Advanced PC Division, NVIDIA's acquisition of ULi Electronics, United Test and Assembly Center's acquisition of UltraTera Corp., Sunplus Technologies' acquisition of Oak Technology's optical storage business, Petrocom Energy Limited's sale of shares to Investec, and PolyOne's acquisition of the PVC compounding unit from Ngai Hing Hong Co. Ltd.

Other companies and funds that John has worked on substantial matters include Actions Semiconductor, Asiavest, Diebold, NewSummit Biopharma, Sansar Capital, Texas Pacific Group, Timken, and Uni-President Group.

John is a frequent speaker on China inbound and outbound mergers and acquisitions and investing in China by foreign enterprises and is Partner-in-Charge in Beijing.


Honors & Distinctions

  • Chambers Global and Chambers Asia — China foreign firms corporate/M&A (2009); Chambers Asia — private equity HK/China (2008-2009); Asia Pacific Legal 500 — China banking and finance, corporate/M&A, and private equity/venture capital (2009)
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