Deals – 29 March 2007

Baker & McKenzie has advised CCMP Capital Asia in relation to the acquisition of New Zealand Telecom Corporation’s Yellow Pages Unit. CCMP Capital Asia, private equity firm, teamed with a unit of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan to make the purchase. Baker & McKenzie have been working closely with CCMP in recent times, including on another New Zealand deal, the acquisition of Independent Liquor (NZ) Limited.

Cleary Gottlieb has advised the underwriters, led by Merrill Lynch and UBS, in the initial public offering of 9,865,000 American Depositary Shares of Tongjitang Chinese Medicines Company, a company producing modernised traditional Chinese medicines. The total offering size was approximately US$99 million. The ADSs began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on March 16 and the offering closed on March 21. This transaction was the first US listing by a traditional Chinese medicine company. Tongjitang was founded in 1995 and has its production facilities in Guizhou province in south-western China. The company focuses on the development, manufacturing, marketing and selling of modernised traditional Chinese medicines. Dongxiang’s shareholders include ML Global Private Equity Fund LP and Merrill Lynch Ventures LP 2001, private equity funds affiliated with Merrill Lynch.

Johnson Stokes Master has acted as the legal adviser of the borrower and the guarantor in the US$200 million loan facility by 33 banks and financial institutions to IFC Development Corporate Finance Limited. The facility is guaranteed by IFC Development Limited. This is the largest Hong Kong dollar corporate syndicated loan raised in recent years. IFC Development Limited is a joint venture by Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited, Henderson Land Development Company Limited and The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited. Its principal asset is the IFC project located at the waterfront in Central district in Hong Kong.

Mallesons Stephen Jaques has advised Sun Hung Kai Financial on Asia’s first property derivative. The Mallesons team was involved in structuring and documenting a price return swap under which Sun Hung Kai Financial sold exposure to the Hong Kong residential market to ABN AMRO in return for a periodic floating payment. The groundbreaking structure paves the way for further similar transactions to be completed in the region. Property derivatives enable investors to take a position on the property market without directly owning the properties and have the further advantage of being more liquid than physical assets.

Nishith Desai Associates has advised Red Fort India Real Estate I LP, a real estate private equity fund managed by Red Fort Capital, in its US$22 million investment in a commercial real estate project in Bangalore to be developed by Prestige Constructions Group. Prestige, one of the renowned developers in Bangalore, is engaged in the business of real estate construction and development in India.