Life insurance company IPO

Cleary Gottlieb has represented Samsung Life Insurance in its US$4.4 billion (HK$34.3 billion) initial public offering, the largest IPO ever by a Korean company. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley were joint bookrunners for the international tranche of the offering. The IPO priced near the high end of the expected price range on 23 April, and the common shares began trading on the KRX KOSPI Market of the Korea Exchange on 12 May. Samsung Life Insurance is the leading life insurance company in Korea and is one of the flagship companies of the Samsung Group, which is the largest business group in Korea. The company provided coverage to 12.6 million individuals as of 31 December 2009, representing approximately 26% of the Korean population. The Cleary corporate team was led by partners Jinduk Han and Sung K Kang.

Shopping centre developer offering

Latham & Watkins has represented Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BOC International, JP Morgan and UBS Investment Bank as underwriters in connection with the US$300 million (HK$2.3 billion) offering of 11.75% senior notes due 2015 by Renhe Commercial
Holdings Company Ltd. Renhe is a Hong Kong-listed operator and developer of underground shopping centers in China. The Latham team was led David Zhang, Eugene Lee, Louis Rabinowitz and Zheng Wang.

Entertainment group to develop programmes in the PRC

Maples and Calder has acted as Cayman Islands counsel to Hairun Media & Entertainment Group Ltd in connection with its US$25 million (HK$194 million series A financing. Hairun is a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands that will engage in and develop the business of production of movies and television drama programmes
in the PRC. The Maples and Calder team was led by partner Anthony Webster and assisted by Sharon Yap.

Real estate investment trust listing

Baker & McKenzie has advised ARA Asset Management (Fortune) Ltd as manager of Fortune Real Estate Investment Trust (Fortune REIT) on the listing of Fortune REIT's units on the main board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd by way of introduction. This is the first real estate investment trust to be dual-listed on both the SEHK and the SGXST. This is also the first listing by introduction approved by the SEHK since its indication in December last year that it would consider applications for listing by introduction only if the SEHK was satisfied that adequate precautionary measures are in place. The Baker & McKenzie team was led by partner Milton Cheng.

China hydropower developer IPO

DLA Piper has advised China Hydroelectric Corp, a leading operator and developer of hydropower projects in the PRC, on its initial public offering of shares, which have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO involved the issue of 6 million units, each unit consisting of one ADS and one warrant, raising US$96 million (HK$746 million). The IPO of China Hydroelectric Corp is the first listing of a PRC-based hydroelectric company on the NYSE. The DLA Piper team representing China Hydroelectric Corp was led by partners Jonathan Klein and Gene Buttrill and included associates George Yu and Minxia Gu.