Linklaters was pleased to advise the Bank of East Asia on the sale by the Bank of East Asia and NWS Holdings of Tricor Holdings to private equity firm Permira.

“This transaction represents an excellent outcome for Bank of East Asia, which announced to the market some time back that it was conducting a strategic review of Tricor in line with its overall strategy,” said partner and Asia Head of Corporate, Robert Cleaver, Linklaters.

“The sale of Tricor is a significant transaction for BEA and we were delighted to act as their advisers,” Mr Cleaver said.

The Bank of East Asia, NWS Holdings and East Asia Securities entered into a share purchase agreement with Trivium Investment Limited, a company which is wholly owned and controlled by Permira funds, for the sale of all the issued shares of Tricor held by East Asia Secretaries to Trivium. The Bank of East Asia and NWS Holdings hold 75.61% and 24.39% respectively in Tricor through East Asia Securities, which is Tricor's sole shareholder.

Tricor is a leading integrated business, corporate and investor services provider, with operations in 37 cities across 20 markets. For the financial year ended 31st December, 2015, Tricor reported net asset value of HK$1,992.6m, profit before tax of HK$353.1m and net profit after tax of HK$292.8m.

Linklaters acknowledges team of Hong Kong partner and head of corporate Robert Cleaver, managing associate Johanna Leung, and associates Ginny Ng and David Liu, in facilitating the transaction.