JunHe warmly welcomes shani Chan and sophie Fu to join its Hong Kong and Beijing offices. November 5, 2026 JunHe warmly welcomes Mr. Shani CHAN and Ms. FU, Wei to the firm's Hong Kong and Beijing offices, respectively. Mr. Shani Chan joins JunHe's Hong Kong office as a partner, and he specializes in Hong Kong capital markets, listings, post-listing compliance, corporate finance, cross-border M&As and regulatory investigations. Ms. Sophie Fu joins JunHe's Beijing office and focuses on Chinese mainland companies' listings in Hong Kong and post-listing continuing compliance. The joining of these two partners further strengthens JunHe's capabilities in cross-border capital markets and cross-border compliance. Ms. Fu's transfer between law firms is currently being processed. Mr. Shani Chan has over 15 years of experience in capital markets. He has been admitted as a solicitor in the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the High Court of England and Wales. Prior to joining JunHe, Mr. Chan was a senior capital markets lawyer at Paul Hastings' Hong Kong office where he served as the leading counsel for many Hong Kong IPO projects. He previously worked at the Hong Kong office of a Chinese mainland law firm and served as an independent non-executive director of a Hong Kong-listed company. Mr. Chan also founded a consultancy firm, which provided advisory services to various investment consortiums. Over the years, Mr. Chan has accumulated diverse experience ranging from private practice, team management, corporate governance to advising investors for regulatory matters. Mr. Chan provided legal services to issuers, underwriters and investment consortiums in areas including Hong Kong initial public offerings, post-listing compliance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and regulatory investigations. His recent landmark listing transactions include the spin-off listing of Smithfield Foods (the world's largest pork food company) by WH Group on the NASDAQ in the United States, the global offering of H shares by Lens Technology (a core supplier to Apple), the global offering of H shares by Fibocom (the first domestic company in the wireless communication module sector to achieve an A+H dual listing) and the global offering of H shares by Transsion (the largest smartphone provider in global emerging markets). Mr. Chan is proficient at providing client-oriented services for complex cross-border capital transactions. He can advise on corporate governance, HKEX compliance and disclosure obligations for Hong Kong-listed companies from the perspectives of both investors and regulatory authorities. FU, Wei | Beijing Office Ms. Sophie Fu has over 10 years of experience in cross-border securities and she has been admitted to practice in China and New York State, USA. Prior to joining JunHe, she worked at Baker McKenzie's Beijing office and its domestic joint operation platform, FenXun Partners. Based in Beijing, Ms. Fu has experience in Chinese mainland companies' listings in Hong Kong and post-listing continuing compliance. She has provided securities compliance legal services to multiple A+H central state-owned enterprises and Hong Kong Main Board-listed companies and is familiar with the internal governance characteristics and the regulatory environment of Chinese mainland enterprises. Ms. Fu is well-versed in the HKEX Listing Rules and handles practical issues arising from the overlay of dual-jurisdiction regulatory regimes. Ms. Fu's practice covers H shares, GDR issuance and listings, corporate governance and ongoing compliance advisory services for Hong Kong-listed companies. She has provided ongoing legal services and HKEX compliance to multiple A+H and Hong Kong Main Board-listed companies, with clients in industries including non-ferrous metals, information technology, logistics and equipment manufacturing. Ms. Fu handles securities legal matters including continuing disclosures, corporate governance and daily compliance, and she has accumulated vast experience in routine compliance services for listed companies. In terms of transactional work, Ms. Fu has participated in Hong Kong Main Board listing projects in industries such as property management and building materials. She has provided Hong Kong securities compliance support for STAR Market (Science and Technology Innovation Board) listing projects in industries such as biopharmaceuticals and equipment manufacturing. Leveraging her practice experience in the Beijing office, Ms. Fu combines the needs of Chinese mainland enterprises to assist clients in handling compliance matters under the regulatory regimes of both Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

Smithfield Fresh Meats Corp. to pay $245,000 in EEOC pregnancy discrimination suit. RALEIGH, N.C. - Smithfield Fresh Meats Corp., a pork processing company with a location in Tar Heel, North Carolina, will pay $245,000 and provide other relief to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

Smithfield CEO reiterates 'commitment' to billion-dollar project. October 28, 2026 Smithfield Foods remains undaunted in its plan to build a new major pork plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., despite a legal hurdle that arose this month in the local approval process, President and CEO Shane Smith said this week. A South Dakota Circuit Court judge on Oct. 1 ordered the Sioux Falls City Council to reconsider its conditional use permit for Smithfield to build a $1.3 billion facility, citing a failure to comply with minimum requirements of city ordinances. During the company's third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Smith described the decision as a "recent setback" in response to a Wall Street analyst's question about the timetable for completing the project in Sioux Falls, where the company is seeking to replace its century-old downtown plant, which employs more than 3,000 people. "It doesn't change our commitment to build the Sioux Falls plant, and we'll update the market timing once those approvals become more clear," Smith said. "But we do plan to reapply for the conditional use permit. And as always, we'll continue to comply with all the regulatory requirements, especially for a project like this, which represents such a major investment." The same judge granted a writ of certiorari to neighboring landowners who sued the city over its decision to relocate Smithfield. She said city officials failed to hold a neighborhood meeting to gain input on how Smithfield would work by various means to buffer adjacent residential homes from the business. The project was announced in February followed by site work that began in the spring, with a planned 2027 groundbreaking to allow operations to start before the end of 2028. With the court-imposed delays, Smith declined to confirm a current schedule "'til we have a little more clarity around the timing." The fresh pork and packaged meats facility, which state authorities have described as the largest business investment in South Dakota history, is to be a 1.1 million-square-foot plant on a 211-acre site in Foundation Park, a heavy industrial development in northwest Sioux Falls. Smithfield's capital expenditures for the first nine months of the 2026 fiscal year were $281 million, including $37 million related to the Sioux Falls project. "The consistent capital investments we have been making are generating solid returns, and we are continuing to invest for the long term," Smith said. "This includes our proposed, groundbreaking, new Sioux Falls processing plant. This plant will be the most modern, efficient, and largest combined fresh pork and packaged meats processing plant in our network and will deliver a step change in operating efficiency." Full-year 2026 capital expenditures excluding the Sioux Falls plant are expected to top $350 million, Smithfield chief financial officer Mark Hall said, "with more than half of our planned capital investments focused on projects designed to support both top and bottom-line growth."