King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) has advised Pantronics Holdings Limited (Pantronics, Stock Code: 1611) as its Hong Kong and PRC legal adviser on its HK$63.6 million initial public offering and listing on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

The KWM team was led by Raymond Wong (Hong Kong law) and Pan Yujia (PRC law), supported by Sherman Chan, Pulcheria Chung and Jeffrey Chan (Hong Kong team), and Yao Tingting (PRC team).

Ashurst is advising life and pensions consolidator Chesnara plc, owner of Countrywide Assured, on its placing and open offer to raise approximately £70 million to part-finance the proposed €160 million acquisition of Legal & General Nederland Levensverzekering Maatschappij N.V ("Legal & General Nederland") by Chesnara Holdings B.V. The balance of the consideration is to be satisfied by new Chesnara Group debt facilities totalling £100.2 million, on which Ashurst has also advised, as well as from existing cash resources.

Alligator Bioscience AB (publ) was listed on the main market of Nasdaq Stockholm with the first day of trading being 23 November 2016. The price in the initial public offering was SEK 32.50 per share, corresponding to a total value of the company’s shares of approx. SEK 2,275 million. Investor AB, through Duba AB, was one of the two selling shareholders.
 
Vinge advised Investor. The Vinge team was headed by capital markets and public M&A partner Erik Sjöman.

Linklaters has advised the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group on the issuance of its ground-breaking Forest Bond, a first-of-its-kind bond that gives investors the option of receiving their interest payment in either cash or carbon credits. The 5-yr bond raised US$152m and will support IFC’s private sector lending and help to prevent deforestation in developing countries by supporting the price of voluntary carbon credits.

Clifford Chance advised the underwriters (BOCI, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, CCBI, CLSA, CMBI, Huatai Financial Holdings , ICBCI, J.P. Morgan, Société Générale and UBS) on the issue of US$300 million and EUR200 million zero coupon notes, both exchangeable for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed shares of China Construction Bank and due 2021, by special purpose issuing vehicles of, and guaranteed by, China Yangtze Power Co., Ltd. China Yangtze Power is the largest hydro power company globally and a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Group.

Dentons has advised the owner family of Drahtzug Stein Holding GmbH & Co. KG on the sale to EMERAM Private Equity Fund I. Advisor of the fund is the Munich-based investment company EMERAM Capital Partners GmbH. The equity for the sale was jointly provided by the owner family, EMERAM Private Equity Fund I and the management. The transaction serves the purpose of financing the companies’ plans for economic growth. The parties agreed not to disclose the value of the transaction which still is subject to approval by the cartel authority.

Advised by King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), China Industrial Securities International Financial Group Limited (CISI, Stock Code: 8407) launched its initial public offering on the GEM Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE). The IPO comprised a total of 1 billion shares issued, including 100 million H-shares. Priced at HK$1.33 per share, the IPO raised approximately HK$1.283 billion.

First UK REIT offering pure-play exposure to social housing

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Civitas Social Housing PLC (Civitas) on its successful £350 million IPO. Civitas is the UK’s first real estate investment trust offering pure-play exposure to social housing to float on the London Stock Exchange.

Civitas will invest in built social housing across England and Wales. It plans to invest in general needs, supported and extra care social housing.

Cenkos Securities plc acted as sole sponsor and financial advisor.

Baker & McKenzie has assisted Sydney Renewable Power Company Limited (SRPC) in its initial public offering of shares.  SRPC has constructed Australia's largest CBD solar installation and its located on top of the new International Convention Centre (ICC) in Darling Harbour.  Itcovers the equivalent of 12 tennis courts in size and is expected to generate enough electricity to power approximately 100 homes each year.

Clifford Chance continues its strong track record advising on Additional Tier 1 issuances. Most recently the Firm acted for the underwriters on China Cinda Asset Management's issuance of US$3.2 billion in aggregate principal amount of 4.45% non-cumulative perpetual offshore preference shares. This is the first preference share offering by a non-bank financial institution from China to replenish Additional Tier 1 capital. Partners Angela Chan and Fang Liu led the team and they were supported by associates Song Yue, Torrance Shi and Nancy Mu.