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Zhong Lun Advises Black Sesame on Chapter 18C IPO on HKEX
Zhong Lun Advises Black Sesame on Chapter 18C IPO on HKEX
On August 8, 2024, Black Sesame International Holding Limited (“Black Sesame”) (2533.HK) made its initial public offering and was successfully listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (“HKEX”), under Chapter 18C of HKEX Main Board Listing Rules. The proceeds of this listing amounted to HKD 1.036 billion.
Zhong Lun Law Firm, acting as the issuer’s PRC legal advisor in its initial public offering, has provided long-term legal services to Black Sesame, supporting the client through various rounds of financing. The project team was overseen by partners Jack Lai, Wendy Guo, and Victor Chen, with associate Rock Yang as the on-site legal counsel to coordinate the project. The project team also included Sen Lin, Zhicheng Xu, and others.
Additionally, under the leadership of partner Jihong Chen, non-equity partner Xiaoxu Wu and associate Chen Ma provided specialized support for intellectual property matters, and non-equity partners Jian Chen and Ruiting Chen advised on data compliance matters. This project has showcased Zhong Lun’s effective approach that combines nuanced division of expertise and seamless inter-disciplinary collaborations, which gives the firm a distinctive competitive edge.
Black Sesame is the first company applying for listing under Chapter 18C “Specialist Technology Companies” of the HKEX Main Board Listing Rules and receiving the Official Notification Letter of China Securities Regulatory Commission (证监会备案通知书). It is also the first autonomous driving chip company to be listed in Hong Kong. Black Sesame focuses on automotive-grade computing system-on-chip (SoC) and solutions in the intelligent automotive field and is one of the earliest companies in China to mass-produce high computing power autonomous driving SoCs. It is also the first company to launch an autonomous driving SoC with 100+ TOPS. In terms of shipments of automotive-grade high computing power SoCs in 2023, Black Sesame has been the world’s third-largest supplier.
