The world’s largest mobile telecoms tower operator succeeded in its US$6.9bn Hong Kong listing
A duo of Magic Circle firms has helped pull off the largest IPO since October 2016.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised China Tower Corporation, the world’s largest operator of mobile telecoms towers, on its US$6.9bn listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX).
The Freshfields team was led by partner and China chairman Teresa Ko, partner and head of China equity capital markets Richard Wang, and partners Jason Xu and Yan Chen.
Clifford Chance acted for the joint sponsors and underwriters of the listing, including China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and Goldman Sachs.
The Clifford Chance team was led by Hong Kong partner Fang Liu, with support from partner Amy Lo in Hong Kong and partner Tim Wang in Beijing. They were assisted by counsel YuFei Liao, senior associate Claire Cao, associates Erxin Lu and Xiaoxi Liu, and trainees Luyi Jiao, Haoze Zheng, Laura Shen, and Linyang Wu in Beijing.
“We have been involved in all major aspects of the flourishing mobile internet sector and we're delighted to have worked with CICC and Goldman Sachs on this landmark IPO of China Tower, which provides the critical infrastructure for mobile communications,” Liu said.
Freshfields has a long history of acting on record-breaking IPOs. It acted for China Unicom in 2000, at the time the world’s largest-ever IPO. It also assisted the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in 2006, which set the record then. The firm also advised on the 2010 IPO of Agricultural Bank of China, which broke the record set by ICBC.
The China Tower IPO continues the work of Clifford Chance on major TMT transactions in the Asia-Pacific region. It recently acted on Xiaomi’s US$4.7bn IPO on the HKEX, as well as The Carlyle Group’s billion-dollar investments in Du Xiaoman and Ant International.
