Allen & Gledhill has advised United Overseas Bank on a S$1.1 billion (US$806.8m) acquisition facility to Yanlord Perennial Investment (Singapore) to finance, inter alia, the general offers for United Engineers and WBL. Partners Lim Wei Ting and Aloysius Ng led the transaction.
Allen & Gledhill has also advised Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and United Overseas Bank on a S$350 million (US$256.74m) term and revolving loan facilities to UVD (Projects) to finance the acquisition of Raintree Gardens and the construction of the proposed development thereon. Partners Lim Wei Ting and Ernest Teo led the transaction.
AZB & Partners has represented Reliance Industries on its approximately Rs4.13 billion (US$63m) acquisition of 24.92 percent of equity share of Balaji Telefilms. Partners Ashwath Rau, Nilanjana Singh and Ami Parikh led the transaction, which was completed on August 22, 2017.
AZB & Partners is also acting as Indian law counsel to Warburg Pincus India / Maplewood, the investing company of the Warburg Pincus group, on Lemon Tree Hotels’ IPO, through an offer for sale by certain existing shareholders, including Maplewood Investment, which holds approximately 24.53 percent in Lemon Tree. Partner Madhurima Mukherjee is leading the transaction, which is yet to be completed.
Clifford Chance has advised CICC, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, ICBC (Asia), Haitong International, HSBC and DBS as the underwriters and joint global coordinators on Postal Savings Bank of China’s US$7.25 billion offering of Basel III-compliant additional tier 1 preference shares. This is the largest ever additional tier 1 capital issue out of Asia and also the largest of its kind globally since 2010. Partners Fang Liu and Angela Chan led the transaction.
Clifford Chance has also advised Bank of Qingdao on its US$1.2 billion additional tier 1 preference shares. Partners Fang Liu and Angela Chan, supported by partner Virginia Lee, led the transaction.
Conyers Dill & Pearman has advised Despegar.com on its IPO in New York. The listing, which was oversubscribed and raised US$382 million, results in Despegar becoming one of the most valuable publicly-listed BVI companies, with a market capitalisation of approximately US$2.1 billion, as of close of trading on September 25, 2017. Headquartered in Buenos Aires, Despegar is the leading online travel company in Latin America and is known by its two brands, namely its global brand Despegar and its Brazilian brand Decolar. BVI partner Anton Goldstein led the transaction, working alongside a team from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Conyers Dill & Pearman has also provided BVI and Cayman Islands advice to KWG Property Holding on its US$250 million 5.2 percent senior notes due 2022. Hong Kong-listed KWG Property Holdings engages in property development in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It develops residential, commercial and hotel properties in Guangzhou, Suzhou, Kunshan, Chengdu and Beijing. Hong Kong partner Paul Lim, working alongside Sidley Austin (Hong Kong), Davis Polk & Wardwell (Hong Kong) and Mayer Brown JSM (Hong Kong), led the transaction.
Fangda has represented Alibaba Chengdu and Hangzhou Hanyun Xinling Fund on their acquisition of 10 percent shares of Xinhuadu from Xinhuadu’s controlling shareholder for approximately Rmb548 million (US$82.4m). Simultaneously, the firm also represented Alibaba Zetai on its joint venture cooperation with Xinhuadu. Each shareholder will contribute Rmb100 million (US$15m) into the newly-established JV company. The deals were signed and announced on September 26, 2017.
Fangda has also represented JP Morgan, Citigroup and Leerink Partners as underwriters on Zai Lab’s IPO in the US of approximately 9.6 million American Depositary Shares, representing the same number of ordinary shares, including 1.25 million additional ADSs purchased pursuant to the overallotment option. The offering raised approximately US$172.5 million in gross proceeds. The IPO closed on September 22, 2017. Shanghai-based Zai Lab is an innovative biopharmaceutical company focusing on discovering or licensing, developing and commercialising proprietary therapeutics that address areas of large unmet medical need in the China market. The market valuation of Zai Lab has reached US$800 million, which is only after BeiGene and Hutchison MediPharma in the domestic biopharmaceutical industry.
K&L Gates has advised Blend & Pack on the sale of a 75 percent interest in the company to Hong Kong-listed Mason Financial Holdings, with an additional 5 percent interest acquired by Australia-listed Wattle Health. The acquisition is valued at a total of A$80 million (US$62.5m). Established in 2007, Blend & Pack provides blending, packaging and distribution services to customers in the infant formula and nutritional products market. It is one of only eight infant formula manufacturers in Australia to be accredited by the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China to produce infant formula to export to the Chinese market. Corporate/M&A partner John Mann, supported by partners Betsy-Ann Howe and Nick Ruskin, led the transaction.
Khaitan & Co has advised the Flipkart group on the strategic acquisition of F1 Info Solutions & Services by Quickroutes International and Instakart Services, both constituents of the Flipkart group. Flipkart is a popular e-commerce marketplace operating in India. Associate partner Vinay Joy led the transaction.
Khaitan & Co has also advised InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo Airlines) on its institutional placement programme of approximately 33.6 million equity shares, aggregating to approximately Rs38 trillion (US$580m), consisting of a fresh issue of approximately 22.4 million equity shares aggregating to Rs25.3 trillion (US$386m) and an offer for sale of approximately 11.2 million equity shares, approximately 4.44 million equity shares by the promoters Rakesh Gangwal, Shobha Gangwal, Asha Mukherjee and by The Chinkerpoo Family Trust aggregating to approximately Rs12.65 trillion (US$193m). Executive director Sudhir Bassi, partners Abhimanyu Bhattacharya, Haigreve Khaitan, Anuj Sah and Moin Ladha, associate partner Aditya George Cheriyan and associate director Vinita Krishnan led the transaction, which is the largest institutional placement programme in India to date, in terms of issue size.
Luthra & Luthra has advised RBL on its Rs10.68 billion (US$160m) private placement of equity shares to augment the bank’s tier-1 capital and support future organic growth. Some of the key investors who participated in the capital raise were CDC Group, Multiples Alternate Asset Management, HDFC Standard Life Insurance, Global IVY Ventures, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and Steadview Capital. Partners Sundeep Dudeja, Manan Lahoty and Amit Shetye led the transaction, which was completed on August 14, 2017.
Maples and Calder (Hong Kong) has acted as Cayman Islands counsel to CK Property Finance (MTN) on the update of its US$3 billion euro medium term note programme with an upsize of the programme limit to US$5 billion, unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by CK Assets Holdings. The programme is listed in Hong Kong. Partner Lorraine Pao led the transaction. Linklaters represented the dealers as to English law.
Paul, Weiss has represented KKR on the Series C financing of Shenzhen Suishou Technology, a leading personal finance management platform in China. KKR has signed definitive agreements, under which it will invest in Suishou to support Suishou’s expansion within China, joining Suishou’s existing group of world-class investors, including Sequoia Capital, Fosun Group and Source Code Capital. KKR will make this round of financing from its Asian Fund III. Corporate partners Judie Ng Shortell, Jack Lange and Tong Yu led the transaction.
Rajah & Tann Singapore has acted for Sunseap Group, Singapore’s leading integrated clean energy solutions provider, on its issuance of preference shares for an aggregate subscription price of approximately S$75 million (US$55m) to BPIN Investment, a leading energy company listed in Thailand. Partner Lee Xin Mei led the transaction.
Rajah & Tann Singapore is also acting as Singapore counsel to Hong Kong-listed Sound Global on its possible delisting and privatisation, by way of selective capital reduction. Partners Danny Lim and Penelope Loh are leading the transaction.
Simpson Thacher is representing Ant Financial in a joint venture with CK Hutchison to offer e-wallet services in Hong Kong under the brand AlipayHK. In Hong Kong, CK Hutchison operates the telecom operator Hutchison Telecommunications, which offers 3HK mobile telecom services and major retail chains, including Watsons (health and beauty), ParknShop (grocery) and Fortress (appliances), serving over 6.6 million Hong Kong telecom and retail customers. Partners Katie Sudol (Hong Kong-M&A), Jeff Ostrow (Palo Alto-intellectual property), and David Vann (London-antitrust) led the transaction.
Skadden has advised ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance (ZhongAn Insurance) on its US$1.52 billion IPO of H shares in Hong Kong. Backed by Alibaba-affiliated Ant Financial, Tencent Holdings and Ping An Insurance, and with SoftBank Group as its cornerstone investor, ZhongAn Insurance is the first internet-only and largest online insurer in China. The listing marks the world’s first “insuretech” public offering and is the largest technology IPO in Hong Kong this year. The shares commenced trading on September 28, 2017. Hong Kong partners Julie Gao, Christopher Betts and Will Cai led the transaction. Paul Hastings advised SoftBank as the cornerstone investor, led by partners David Wang, Jia Yan, Nan Li and Bonnie Yung.
Skadden has also advised RYB Education, a leading provider of early childhood education services in China, on its US$144.30 million IPO of American Depositary Shares and listing in New York. The shares commenced trading on September 27, 2017. Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing partner Julie Gao led the transaction.
S&R Associates has represented InterGlobe Technology Quotient and its promoters on a sale of shares to Capital Group. Sanjeev Adlakha and Kanika Khanna led the transaction.
WongPartnership has acted for Singapore GP on its agreements with Formula One World Championship and the Singapore Tourism Board to host, stage and promote the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix for an additional four years from 2018 to 2021. Partners Mark Choy and Milton Toon led the transaction.
