*Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Lee & Ko have advised the Republic of Korea on a $1.45 billion issuance of SEC-registered foreign exchange stabilization bonds. Clifford Chance Hong Kong partner Richard Lee and Bae Kim & Lee advised the underwriters, BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Mirae Asset Daewoo and Standard Chartered Bank. The dual-tranche bonds consisted of €700 million euro-denominated bonds and $625 million dollar-denominated bonds, maturing in 2030 and 2025, respectively. The euro-denominated bonds, which carry a record-low yield of -0.059%, are the first government bonds to be offered by the Republic of Korea in the international markets with a negative yield, which means that investors would earn less than the original purchase price upon the bond’s maturity. The deal also marked the first time in six years that Korea has issued euro-dominated foreign exchange stabilization bonds. In 2019, Cleary advised the Republic of Korea on its SEC-registered dual-tranche offering of $500 million and $1 billion notes on the Singapore Exchange.
Japan
Nishimura & Asahi Tokyo partners Mitsuhiro Harada, Tatsuya Nakayama and Kazumaro Kobayashi have advised Lixil Viva Corp., which operates home center chain stores and retails home improvement products, on a $480 million sale of a 53.22% stake to Arcland Sakamoto Co. Ltd., a Japanese retailer and wholesaler of DIY and consumer products. The seller, LIXIL Group, which manufactures and sells building materials and housing equipment, has sold its entire holding in Lixil Viva to Arcland Sakamoto to streamline its operations to focus on manufacturing household furniture. Arcland Sakamoto said that it plans to buy the rest of the shares in Lixil Viva from other shareholders in a public tender. Skadden partner and head of Tokyo Mitsuhiro Kamiya advised Greenhill & Co, financial advisors on the deal.
India
*Khaitan & Co., Herbert Smith Freehills and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas have advised on a $105 million IPO of Indian digital transformation company, Happiest Minds Technologies, on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange with an offering that was oversubscribed by nearly 151 times. Led by senior partner Rajiv Khaitan and partner Thomas George in Bengaluru, Khaitan & Co advised Happiest Minds, which offers technological services including digital transformation, product engineering, infrastructure management, and security services. Herbert Smith Freehills Singapore partner Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan and Cyril Amarchand partner Vijay Parthasarathi advised the two book runners, ICICI Securities Limited and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited.
*Updated 9/28: This story has been updated with the Ming Yuan Cloud IPO, the Korean government’s stabilization bonds and Happiest Minds Technologies’ India IPO.
Related Stories:
Skadden, Freshfields Lead on ZTO’s $1.6B Planned Debut as Secondary Listings Flock to Hong Kong
