Deals – 12 July 2007

Clifford Chance advised Morgan Stanley Asia Limited as sole sponsor of the Hong Kong IPO of China’s largest maker of transmission equipment for wind turbines. China High Speed Transmission Equipment debuted on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on the 4th of July. The Hong Kong public offering was 692 times oversubscribed and received subscription monies of US$19 billion just for the Hong Kong offering alone.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson represented Merrill Lynch International and Merrill Lynch Far East Limited on the global offering of Vinda International Holdings Limited and certain selling shareholders of ordinary shares for aggregate proceeds of approximately US$130 million. The global offering consisted of an initial public offering of ordinary shares that were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and a concurrent 144A/Reg S placement. Vinda International Holdings Limited is a leading manufacturer of tissue paper products in China.

Latham & Watkins has advised a syndicate of investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and CLSA as underwriters to ICICI Bank in the largest equity offering of approximately US$5 billion made by an Indian company.

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker represented a consortium of financial arrangers comprising ABN AMRO Holding NV, Citibank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Standard Chartered, HSBC, CIMB Group, and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ on the buyout of Malaysia’s largest mobile phone operator, Maxis Communications, by companies controlled by Ananda Krishnan. The deal values Maxis at US$12 billion, making it Southeast Asia’s largest privatization and one of the largest leveraged buyouts in Asia. Paul Hastings also represented ABN AMRO in its role as M&A adviser to the acquiror.

Slaughter and May advised on the initial public offering and Hong Kong listing of Fosun International Limited which raised US$1.5 billion before exercise of the over-allotment option. Slaughter and May acted as Hong Kong counsel to the joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, Morgan Stanley, UBS and CICC. This is the third largest IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year. Fosun Group was the largest PRC privately-owned enterprise with multiple business lines in terms of revenue in 2005, with core businesses in the steel, property development and pharmaceuticals sectors and investments in the retail business. Eleven cornerstone investors invested a total of US$220 million in the offering. The institutional and retail portions of the offering were both significantly oversubscribed.

WongPartnership acted for The Ascott Group Limited as sponsor of their first private equity real estate fund—Ascott Serviced Residence (China) Fund—which raised US$500 million to develop and reposition properties in the PRC as serviced residence properties and rental housing.

WongPartnership acted for Water and Environmental Technologies on the sale of shares to Beng Kuang Marine Limited.