Allen & Gledhill has advised Indika Energy Capital II on the issue of US$265 million 6.875 percent senior notes due 2022. Partners Margaret Chin, Ong Kangxin and Sunit Chhabra led the transaction.
Allen & Gledhill has also advised DBS Bank as arranger on the establishment of a S$300 million (US$215m) multicurrency medium term note programme by Maxi-Cash Financial Services. Partners Margaret Chin and Sunit Chhabra led the transaction.
AZB & Partners is acting as Indian counsel to Axis Capital, IIFL Holdings and Vivro Financial Services as the book-running lead managers on the IPO of Capacit’e Infraprojects. Partners Varoon Chandra and Lionel D’Almeida are leading the transaction, which was valued at Rs4 billion (US$62.2m) and is yet to be completed.
AZB & Partners is also advising Clermont Trust on the acquisition of approximately 4.8 million equity shares of Indiabulls Ventures by Tamarind Capital, which is ultimately beneficially owned by the Clermont Trust. Partners Rushabh Maniar and Divya Mundra are leading the transaction, which was valued at Rs4.5 billion (US$70m) and is yet to be completed.
Baker McKenzie has acted for New York-listed Post Holdings, a consumer packaged goods holding company, on its agreement to acquire Weetabix from Shanghai-based state-owned enterprise Bright Food Group and an investment fund advised by Barings Private Equity Asia. London corporate partner Charles Whitefoord, supported by partners Bill Batchelor (Brussels) and Regine Corrado (Chicago), led the transaction, which was announced on April 18, 2017. Lewis Rice advised Post Holdings on the US aspects. Ropes & Gray, led by private equity partners Will Rosen (London) and Peng Yu, supported by anti-trust partner Ruchit Patel, and Linklaters, led by London private equity partner Carlton Evans, acted for Baring Private Equity Asia and Bright Foods. Mills & Reeve, led by corporate partner Anthony McGurk, acted for Weetabix.
DLA Piper has advised China Huarong Macau (HK) Investment Holdings (Huarong Macau) on its HK$390 million (US$50m) investment in Hong Kong-listed Carnival Group International Holdings in the form of secured convertible bonds due 2020. Carnival operates as a developer of integrated tourism, hospitality and retail projects in China and Hong Kong. Huarong Macau is a member of the Huarong financial conglomerate, which provides securities brokerage, investment banking, futures and asset management, and other financial services. Finance and projects partner Paul Lee and corporate partner Gloria Liu led the transaction.
J Sagar Associates has advised Japanese-listed Toshiba on establishing a joint venture in India with both Japanese-listed Suzuki Motor and Denso to manufacture automotive lithium-ion battery packs. The JV aims to create a stable supply of lithium-ion battery packs to promote sustainable cars in the country. In addition to attending towards the environment objectives of the country, this project also contributes to the ‘Make in India’ program of the Indian government. Scheduled to be established this year, the JV has an initial capital expenditure of ¥20 billion (US$180.3m) and will be capitalised at ¥2 billion (US$18m), with the participation ratio of Suzuki at 50 percent, Toshiba at 40 percent and Denso at ten percent. Partners Upendra Nath Sharma, Nitesh Bhasin, Kartik Jain and Reeti Choudhary led the transaction, while Anderson Mori & Tomotsune acted as Japanese counsel.
Khaitan & Co has advised Runaya Metsource on its joint venture with UC Rusal Russia for setting up an aluminium powders and pastes manufacturing plant. Runaya Metsource is a limited liability partnership formed by the members of the Navin Agarwal family from the Vedanta group, a diversified natural resources group of companies, with operations across zinc-lead-silver, oil and gas, iron ore, copper, aluminium and commercial power. Partners Rahul Dutt and Aakash Choubey led the transaction.
Khaitan & Co has also advised Paragon Partners on its primary investment in Visu Leasing and Finance, Bee Fintech and Booth Fintech. Paragon Partners is a German private equity company based in Munich. It was founded in 2004 and managed by the owners. The company administers several funds that invest in medium-sized German companies. Partner Kartick Maheshwari led the transaction.
Maples and Calder (Hong Kong) has acted as Cayman Islands counsel to the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of KongZhong, a Cayman Islands company based in Beijing and listed on Nasdaq, on its going private transaction. Under the transaction, which was completed by way of a Cayman statutory merger, the company was acquired by an investor consortium which comprised, among others, Leilei Wang (the chairman and CEO of the company), Gongqingcheng Wujiang Xingyao Investment Management Partnership, Hexie Chengzhang Phase II (Yiwu) Investment Centre and/or their respective affiliates. KongZhong is a leading online game developer and operator in China. Partner Richard Spooner led the transaction, which was valued at approximately US$299 million and was completed on April 13, 2017. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom acted as independent US counsel to the independent committee while Sullivan & Cromwell acted as US counsel to the company. Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as US counsel to the investor consortium.
Paul Hastings has advised Sino-Ocean Land, one of the largest real estate companies in China, on its partnership with US-based wellness real estate and technology firm Delos to advance health and wellness in the built environment in China. Sino-Ocean and Delos first announced their partnership in December 2015, pledging to promote health and wellness in China by transforming indoor environments. Pioneered by Delos, WELL is the world’s first building standard focused exclusively on human health and wellness. WELL is an evidence and performance-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring features that impact human health and well-being in the built environment, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. Sino-Ocean has committed to pursue WELL Certification for 25 million square feet of building projects in China. Corporate partner Vivian Lam led the transaction, which was announced on April 20, 2017.
Shearman & Sterling has advised the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board on its investment, alongside Kedaara Capital Investment Managers and Soros Fund Management, into Spandana Sphoorty Financial. Spandana is an Indian microfinance lender with 540 branches in 13 Indian states and has over two million borrowers. The funds will be used to repay and restructure Spandana’s existing debt with 37 different lenders and exit the Indian corporate debt restructuring scheme. Singapore M&A partner Sidharth Bhasin led the transaction. AZB & Partners acted as Indian counsel to Kedaara.
Skadden has advised China Petrochemical (Sinopec Group) on the issue of international bonds worth US$3.4 billion. The bonds consisted of an offering of US$1 billion 2.375 percent senior notes due 2020, US$1.1 billion 3 percent senior notes due 2022, US$1 billion 3.625 percent senior notes due 2027 and US$300 million 4.25 percent senior notes due 2047 by Sinopec Group Overseas Development (2017). All notes are guaranteed by Sinopec. Partners Peter Huang (Beijing), Edward Lam (Hong Kong) and Sean Shimamoto (Palo Alto) led the transaction, which was announced on April 12, 2017.
Sullivan & Cromwell (Hong Kong) has represented Morgan Stanley as financial adviser to Yingde Gases Group (Hong Kong) on PAGAC II-2’s (Hong Kong) voluntary conditional cash offer to acquire all the issued shares of Yingde. Corporate partners Kay Ian Ng (Hong Kong) and Gwen Wong (Beijing) led the transaction, which was completed on March 25, 2017.
Sullivan & Cromwell (Hong Kong) is also representing Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) and TCC International (Hong Kong) in their proposed privatisation of TCC International Holdings (Hong Kong) by way of a scheme of arrangement under Section 86 of the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands. Beijing corporate partner Gwen Wong is leading the transaction, which was announced on April 20, 2017.
