Date Published: 14 September 2022
The team involved in the transaction: Ken Chia, Hazel Ho-Tsastsina, Sylvia Koh and Lai Zheng Yong
CNPLaw LLP (“CNPLaw”) acted for a group of sellers in their divestment of a controlling stake in Rebonics Pte Ltd (“Rebonics”) to the leading recommerce group in Greater Southeast Asia, Carousell Group. Rebonics is the parent company of Laku6, an Indonesian electronics recommerce platform offering an online marketplace for buying and selling secondhand mobile phones. The transaction saw the exit of long-term individual and institutional investors in Rebonics, with Carousell Group stepping in with a US$25 million investment in Rebonics to bolster its growth in the Greater Southeast Asia electronics recommerce industry.
The transaction was completed in July 2022. CNPLaw represented, among others, one of the co-founders of Laku6, Mr Alvin Yap, who commended CNPLaw for its team effort in seeing the transaction through to completion.
CNPLaw Partners, Mr Ken Chia and Ms Hazel Ho-Tsastsina, had this to say on the deal: “Having been with Rebonics and its co-founders since early fundraising days, we are very fortunate to have been part of the company’s remarkable journey over the years and are now heartened for our clients to embark on this exciting new chapter with Carousell Group.”
CNPLaw’s Corporate Advisory Lawyers
Every business involves an amalgam of various stakeholders, such as investors, shareholders and directors. Ideally, each of these stakeholders should have a common vision of what is best for the company. However, this is rarely the case when individual interests are factored into the equation.
Stakeholder conflicts (regarding issues such as breaches of fiduciary duties, derivative actions, shareholder oppression, management deadlocks, management compensation, dividend payments and buy-outs) can be a thorny issue and can leave a company crippled if not addressed promptly.
Given the diversity of interests at play, we appreciate that a multi-faceted approach is usually the most cost-efficient method of resolving stakeholder conflicts. Therefore, we provide clients with ready access to an integrated team of lawyers (combining the experience of our corporate, dispute resolution and employment law practices where applicable) who will effectively engage the relevant stakeholders in discussions on how best to resolve their differences amicably.
More often than not, clients are able to avoid costly protracted court proceedings and resolve stakeholder conflicts with discretion and expediency.
Each M&A deal entails the confluence of multiple legal disciplines. That is why we take great care when assembling a team for each deal, ensuring that there is an optimal mix of specialisation in the clients’ identified areas of concern, such as tax, employment and intellectual property, and necessary industry-specific experience.
We provide support to our clients at every stage of the deal. We will be there at the beginning of the process, helping to facilitate the negotiations between the parties and advising on the structure of the transaction. Once the parties have reached a consensus, we meticulously prepare the necessary documentation. Recognising that M&A deals are often the first page of a new chapter for the parties involved, we also provide post-transaction support to ensure a smooth transition such as the preparation of shareholder agreements, employment agreements, and other relevant commercial documentation.