Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises major media and telecoms groups on joint ventures to develop online classifieds platforms

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance is advising Schibsted ASA, Telenor Group and South-east Asia's leading media company, Singapore Press Holdings, on a series of joint ventures and other transactions for the development of online classifieds platforms in four key markets - Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh.

The joint ventures between Singapore Press Holdings , media group Schibsted and telecoms company Telenor - along with South Africa's Naspers – are intended to bring substantial benefits to consumers. Combining the platforms will make it faster and easier than ever for people to buy and sell items online, and will widen both the selection of items for sale and the number of potential buyers.

The Clifford Chance team was led by partners Daniel Sandelson and Joachim Fleury in London and by Thomas Vinje in Brussels on the antitrust aspects. Key senior associates on the transaction included Jennifer Mbaluto, Julian Pitcher  and Line Poliquin.  The broader international team included: Mark Jan Arends in Amsterdam, Andrew Matthews in Bangkok, Anthony Oldfield in São Paulo and Lee Taylor in Singapore.

Joachim Fleury, Clifford Chance's global head of TMT, said: "This is a seminal transaction in a growing segment of the online industry which shows how cooperation between operators of technology platforms and media houses can create a powerful digital marketplace that is both attractive to consumers and profitable ‎to the businesses behind it. Clifford Chance is proud to have supported Telenor,  Schibsted and Singapore Press Holdings on taking the next step in their global cooperation. We fielded a multinational team across seven offices and a range of disciplines to get this very complex deal signed in record time."

Daniel Sandelson, head of the Media practice at Clifford Chance, said: "Our TMT practice works with clients across the digital media canvas in both mature and developing markets to help them in their transition to new forms of media technology.  We are fortunate to have been able to work on this transaction, which illustrates that digital media innovation often occurs in media markets outside what are often thought of as the more traditional ones."