Latham Advises on NIO Inc. Offering of US$1.5 Billion Convertible Senior Notes

Latham & Watkins represented the joint bookrunning managers on NIO Inc’s (NYSE:NIO) offering of US$750 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2026 (2026 Notes), and US$750 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2027 (2027 Notes). The transaction is largest convertible bond offering by a Chinese auto maker, and was closed on January 15, 2021. The notes issued at closing included the exercise in full by the initial purchasers’ option to purchase up to an additional US$100 million in aggregate principal amount of the 2026 Notes and US$100 million in aggregate principal amount of the 2027 Notes. NIO Inc is a pioneer in China’s premium smart electric vehicle market. Credit Sussie, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and CICC acted as the joint bookrunning managers for the offering.

Latham previously engaged in several landmark transactions for NIO Inc, including advising the underwriters on NIO Inc’s US$1 billion US IPO, three follow-on offerings raising US$3.05 billion, US$1.7 billion and US$428.4 million respectively, and offering of US$750 million convertible senior notes.

The Latham deal team was led by Hong Kong corporate partner Allen Wang and counsel Wei Wei. Advice on derivatives was provided by Hong Kong corporate partner Posit Laohaphan, New York corporate partner Reza Mojtabaee-Zamani, and associates Polina Tulupova, Jack Neff, and Christine Lo; on tax matters by New York partner Bora Bozkurt and associate Ron Moore.