The Legal 500

‘Experienced, commercially minded’ managing partner Kenneth Aboud and his team at Allen & Overy are ‘excellent across all metrics’, representing banks in major equity and debt transactions. Lock Yin Mei and Kenny Kwan acted on the $5.8bn Hutchison Port Holdings Trust IPO. ‘Fantastic, trusted service provider’ Jeremy Stoupas advised AMP Group Finance Services and AMP Group Holdings on the issue of A$600m Subordinated Guaranteed Exchangeable Notes. The team is strong in Islamic finance, advising on Singapore’s first sharia-compliant REIT. Consultant Philip Lee is ‘innovative, helpful, reliable and responsive’.

Joan Janssen and her team at Clifford Chance advised international banks on Global Logistic Properties’ $2.7bn IPO on the SGX-ST. Edward Bradley and Rahul Guptan advised on L&T Finance Holdings $275m listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. Johannes Juette was promoted to partner. Lateral hire Raymond Tong from WongPartnership LLP adds Singapore law capability under the firm’s QLFP licence.

Latham & Watkins LLP’s practice head Michael Sturrock represented PT Pertamina (Persero) on $1bn and $500m notes offerings. Together with Min Yee Ng, Sturrock represented the underwriters in ICICI Bank’s $1bn notes offering. Indian capital markets specialist Rajiv Gupta assisted Vedanta Resources with its $1.65bn high-yield bond offering.

Clients consider Linklaters Allen & Gledhill ‘the go-to firm for big, complex transactions’, and appreciate its ‘great product expertise, market knowledge and fast response times’. Dean Lockhart assisted Cebu Air with its $617m IPO. Indian capital markets specialist Arun Balasubramaniam and his team acted on Standard Chartered’s Listing of Indian Depositary Receipts on the Indian stock exchanges - the first-ever listing by a non-Indian company. Practice head Kevin Wong advised on Khazanah’s S$1.5bn sukuk.

Herbert Smith LLP’s Austin Sweeney and Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan and their team advised Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan on Agung Podomoro Land’s $250m IPO. A formal association with Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung, including the full-time secondment of partner David Dawborn, enables the firm to offer Indonesian capital markets advice under one roof. Kevin Roy and Veronica O’Shea advised on the guaranteed bond offering by finance SPV of Axiata Group.

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy’s practice head David Zemans, who is respected by peers and clients, and senior capital markets partner Naomi Ishikawa, who specialises in IPOs and securities work, represent banks and issuers with a particular focus on Indonesia, notably advising on the $285.2m PT Harum Energy IPO. Giles Kennedy was promoted to the partnership.

Shearman & Sterling LLP lost practice head Gail Ong to WongPartnership LLP. Capital markets partner Andrew Schleider, from Shearman & Sterling LLP New York, and associate Trevor Ingram, from Shearman & Sterling LLP London, joined the team, which handles major local and pan-Asian deals, representing CIMB, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley in Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad’s $4bn IPO and listing on Bursa Malaysia, and representing the underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley in the NASDAQ listing and IPO of Indian online travel agency MakeMyTrip.

Baker & McKenzie.Wong & Leow’s Ashok Lalwani’s integrated capital markets practice also has US law capability. Lalwani and Jih-Shian Yeo, who is recommended for his ‘superior knowledge of Indonesian issues’, advised on PT Bank Negara’s $1.2bn rights offering and global placement. Yeo also advised on the IPO of Indofood CBP.

Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee’s ‘responsive and knowledgeable’ team, led by debt capital markets specialist Andrew Carey who relocated from London, advised Citibank as Trustee, and Sinopac Securities (Asia) as Arranger, on King Yuan Electronics’ $40m convertible bonds issue. Yvette Abel advised Bank of New York Mellon. Clients appreciate the firm’s specialist trustee capability. Ken Hawkes left to join White & Case LLP.

Jones Day is active in Indonesia, Thailand and India and handled Singapore focused deals for Temasek. Manoj Bhargava advised on Indian transactions, including Adani Enterprises’ $850m Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP). Joseph Bauerschmidt, who advised BUMA on its $302m tender offer of guaranteed senior secured notes, was promoted to partner.

Norton Rose (Asia) LLP’s practice is supported by its Singapore law capability and strong regional footprint. Ferzana Haq and Jill Gauntlett specialise in debt capital markets. Highlights included advising SportsHub Pte on the interest rate swap structuring and documentation part of the sponsor financing. Adam Summerley advised Jefferies International on Shiv-Vani’s $75m convertible bonds issue.

Sidley Austin LLP’s team was boosted by Prabhat Mehta from the New York office and Gerard Hekker’s arrival from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. The team represented PT Bank Mandiri in its $1.35bn rights offering and contemporaneous secondary share offering by the Indonesian government. The ‘impressive’ Matthew Sheridan, who divides his time between Singapore and Hong Kong, assisted PT Indosat with two debt tender offers and a high-yield bond offering.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP combines US law capability with a strong Indian practice and regional presence, notably in Hong Kong. Rajeev Duggal represented Credit Suisse and DBS Bank as placement agents for the $400m financing of new units in Ascott REIT. Together with Jonathan Stone in Hong Kong, Duggal represented Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley in Bakrie Telecom’s $130m Rule 144A/Regulation S high-yield guaranteed senior notes offering.

White & Case LLP provides ‘top-notch legal advice and service’ offering US law capability across India, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Kaya Proudian and Sin Teck Lim represented PT Bumi Resources Minerals Tbk in its $232m Regulation S IPO and listing on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and Bakrie Telecom as issuer and PT Bakrie Telecom Tbk as parent guarantor in Bakrie Telecom’s $130m high-yield guaranteed senior notes offering.

Allens Arthur Robinson TSMP ‘understands the operational, technical and commercial aspects of transactions’. Robert Fish represents issuers and arrangers in debt capital markets transactions, and Rod Howell specialises in structured and asset finance.

DLA Piper Singapore Pte. Ltd. worked on 20 India-related mandates. Practice head Stephen Peepels and recently promoted partner Biswajit Chatterjee advised the Government of India on numerous privatisations and disinvestments, acting on Coal India’s IPO and listing on the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange. Timothy Franklyn relocated to Hong Kong.

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP advised the initial purchasers on a $1.1bn medium-term notes offering by Temasek Financial. Hong Kong partner William Barron is the leading name.

Emad Khalil at Gibson Dunn advised Singapore government owned EDB Investments and its affiliates on the Fluidigm IPO. John Viverito advised the Mongolian Stock Exchange on an agreement with the London Stock Exchange Group. Clients recommend the firm’s ‘outstanding’ Islamic finance practice.

O’Melveny & Myers LLP’s ‘excellent lead counsel’ David Makarechian and Andrew Hutton, who joined from Paul Hastings LLP in Hong Kong, represented Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, SBI Capital and ICICI Securities in Power Grid Corporation of India’s $1.7bn equity shares offering and listing on the Indian stock exchanges.

Stephenson Harwood’s Matthew Gorman and his team focus on equity capital markets, and regional IPOs, notably advising China New Energy and Top Creation on their IPOs on AIM.

Sole practitioner Nicholas Serwer combines running The Serwer Law Firm LLC with acting as general counsel for PT Ancora International in Singapore and Jakarta.

Recommended as ‘proactive with the ability to think out of the box’, Nicholas Hanna at Watson, Farley & Williams LLP assists clients including Glaspak Group, Great Group and PT Besmindotama with Main Board, AIM and PLUS listings on the London stock exchanges.