Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance and Jingtian & Gongcheng have advised on Chinese miner Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal’s (Yitai Coal) $902 million initial public offering (IPO) and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the largest in Hong Kong since Haitong Securities’ $1.85 billion offering in April this year. Yitai Coal is the first B-share company – U.S. dollar or Hong Kong dollar denominated stock traded in the mainland – to trade in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Clifford Chance advised Yitai Coal on Hong Kong and U.S. law, while Jingtian & Gongcheng acted as the coal producer’s PRC counsel.
Clifford Chance Beijing partners Tim Wang and Jean Yu led the team, while Shanghai partner Jean Thio and Crawford Brickley advised on U.S. legal issues.
Freshfields, meanwhile, advised the underwriters BOC International, China International Capital Corp (CICC), Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, UBS, Credit Suisse, and Macquarie Group. Freshfields’ corporate practice head, Ken Martin, led the team with Beijing-based partner Richard Wang.
The capital raised from the offering will help fund Yitai Coal’s purchase of coal production, sales and transportation businesses from its parent company, Yitai Group, for about HK$10.4 billion ($1.34 billion).
Equity capital market deals in Asia (ex Japan) fell 30.4 percent to $77.9 billion in the first half. Given the current economic uncertainty in the market, the funds raised by Yitai Coal hold further significance.
"Our team is very pleased we have been able to work on a number of successful listings during such volatile economic times," said Wang of Clifford Chance. "This most recent listing for Yitai Coal raised a significant amount of funds, the second largest this year, despite market uncertainties."
The coal producer’s IPO highlights the importance of cornerstone stakeholders, said Reuters. The company secured about $390 million from these investors (Datang International with $100 million, Baosteel Resources International, and King Link Holding with $30 million each), allowing it to cover more than 40 percent of its 162.8 million share offering.
Kanishk Verghese is North Asia journalist at ALB. Follow us on Twitter: @ALB_Magazine.
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