International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised a consortium of underwriters of a US$5.47 billion A and H rights issue of China Merchants Bank. This rights issue is also the largest equity and follow-on offering in China and Asia, excluding Japan, this year.
China Merchants Bank, China’s first joint-stock commercial bank and a leading financial institution in Asia, proposed to initially issue 680,423,172 H share rights at HK$11.68 per share and 3,073,906,773 A share rights at RMB9.29 per share. The deal was closed on 2 October 2013 with 680,423,172 H shares and 2,962,813,544 A shares having been subscribed by existing shareholders of China Merchants Bank.
Freshfields advised the underwriters on both the United States and Hong Kong aspects of the rights issue.
The Freshfields global capital markets team was led by corporate partner Richard Wang in Beijing and US corporate partner Calvin Lai in Hong Kong.
