Recently, Mr. Zhao Qilong and Mr. Zhu Yuanxiao, senior partners of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm, represented a case of non-competition and service commitment disputes arising from the merger and acquisition of listed companies' major assets and performance betting, and won the case at the final trial.
The case was represented by Mr. Zhao Qilong and Mr. Zhu Yuanxiao in the first trial. In the case that the plaintiff, listed company Kehua Data, claimed a huge amount of compensation of RMB 515 million from the original shareholder of the target company, Mr. Shi, etc., the court of first instance only supported the compensation amount of RMB 1.9 million through the successful representation of King&Capital lawyers. Later, the plaintiff Kehua Data appealed against the first-instance judgment, and the second-instance Beijing Higher People's Court rejected all of Kehua Data's appeal requests after hearing the case, and the first-instance judgment came into effect.
The cause of the conflict between the two sides is that in 2017, the listed company Kehua Data acquired 75% of the IDC company held by Shi and others with 637.5 million yuan, and agreed on a 3-year performance bet. Later, Kehua Data and the core management team headed by Shi Mou had conflicts during the betting period, which in turn triggered a series of lawsuits including performance compensation and stock unlocking, etc. This case is the third lawsuit between the two parties, and is also the case with the largest amount of money involved in the lawsuit. In that case, Kehua Data froze hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Kehua Data's shares held by Shi and others through property preservation, which caused Shi and others tremendous economic and mental pressure. In addition, in the first two lawsuits that had occurred between the two parties, Shi and others had actually paid more than 53 million yuan to the listed company for performance compensation.
At this critical moment, the client Shi and others found King&Capital lawyers to seek legal solutions. The lawyer team intervened at the first time, held an internal discussion meeting during the Lunar New Year of 2022, formed a preliminary plan, and communicated with the client in person. Through the team's in-depth study, it was found that this case is indeed a new type of difficult and complex cases, with more controversial focuses, and involves the cross-application of the Company Law, the former Contract Law, the Labor Contract Law and other laws, as well as criminal-civilian cross-cutting issues. For this reason, the lawyer team in the accurate prediction of the focus of the case, based on the focus of the dispute, targeted case search and evidence collection work, the focus of the issue of in-depth study, and formulate a perfect program to respond to the lawsuit. Lawyer team professional, meticulous preparation work, not only for the final trial of the case has laid a solid foundation, but also to a certain extent to ease the client's anxiety.
The case from the preliminary preparation to the second trial, which lasted nearly two years. During this period, we went through jurisdictional objections, pre-trial meetings, several court conversations and court sessions, and finally rejected the other party's huge compensation claim, and the client's seized stock account was successfully unsealed. The court of first and second instance not only adopted our core viewpoints, but also directly quoted many of our arguments in the judgment, which is undoubtedly a recognition of the professional ability of the lawyer team. The successful representation of this case not only highlights the professional ability and strength of King&Capital in representing major, difficult and complex cases, but also for the client to resolve the major litigation risks, and safeguard the shareholders, the core management team's financial security, the client of the lawyers team's work has been highly evaluated and recognized.
