Capital markets lawyers

Mabel Lui acted in one of the first H share issues by Chinese corporations with dual listings on the Hong Kong and New York Stock Exchanges.

We advised Pro-Invest on capital raising, shareholders agreements, fund documents, various property investments and its interaction with InterContinental Hotels Group in relation to Pro-invest’s AU$300 million Holiday Inn Express fund in Australia.

We represented a real estate company specializing in residential, hotel/serviced apartments, retail, industrial, and office premium properties in Hong Kong and Shanghai, in relation to the disposal of the entire issued share capital and assignment of shareholder’s loan of Bentley Investments Limited holding a whole block of prestigious building in the southern part of Hong Kong Island known as No. 3 South Bay Close to Baldric Investments Limited, a subsidiary of National Electronics Holdings Limited. This matter is regarded as a major transaction under the Listing Rules of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the consideration is around HK$668 million.

We advised on the privatisation of the Scottish electricity industry. This privatisation included the whole pre-IPO reorganisation, and hiving off of the Grid and the Nuclear industry.

Hightex Group is a UK, Swiss and German membrane and renewable energy company. Withers has acted for Hightex Group on their IPO on the AIM market. We have also advised Hightex Group on their reverse takeover of West 175 Media Group Inc., the acquisition of HighTex International (HTI) AG, and on the acquisition of SolarNext AG, a German company active in the solar and alternative energy sectors.

Our New York, Greenwich and New Haven teams assisted on the negotiation of GrafTech's private offering worth US$150 million, to an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, with a tender offer by Brookfield at a value up to approximately US$690 million. GrafTech was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and, as part of the take-private transaction, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian firm, Brookfield the global alternative asset manager with over US$200 billion of assets under management. Founded in 1886 in Ohio, GrafTech is an American multinational subsidiary company with revenues of over US$1 billion. GrafTech has been manufacturing carbon and graphite products for over 125 years and now provides graphite products and services to over 70 countries in a wide range of industries and markets.

A European family asked us to create an overarching trust structure to hold their commercial interests in the UK, Greece, Cyprus, Singapore and elsewhere. Resident in Monaco and London, the family needed the structure to operate as an estate plan, enabling wealth to be passed between generations. This was all done in conjunction with a family constitution governing the management of their wealth.