Allen & Gledhill has acted as transaction counsel to the Housing and Development Board (HDB) on the issue of S$1.2 billion (US$850m) fixed rate green notes due 2027, under its S$32 billion (US$22.7b) multicurrency medium term note programme. The proceeds of the issuance are intended to be used to finance or refinance eligible green projects under the Project Category of Green Buildings and for such other purposes, as set out in HDB’s Green Finance Framework. Partners Margaret Chin, Fabian Tan and Sunit Chhabra led the firm’s team in the transaction.
Allen & Gledhill has also advised CIMB Bank Singapore Branch, as the appointed arranger and dealer; The Bank of New York Mellon, Singapore Branch, as the appointed trustee, CDP issuing and paying agent, CDP calculation agent, CDP transfer agent and CDP registrar; The Bank of New York Mellon London Branch, as the appointed non-CDP issuing and paying agent and non-CDP calculation agent; and The Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV Dublin Branch, as the appointed non-CDP registrar and non-CDP transfer agent, on the establishment of a S$300 million (US$212.5m) multicurrency debt issuance programme by Elite Commercial REIT. Partners Margaret Chin, Sunit Chhabra and Magdalene Leong led the firm’s team in the transaction.
AZB & Partners is advising AM Marketplaces (LimeRoad), its parent company MA Willmind Holdings and its founder Suchishree Mukherjee on the approximately Rs311 million (US$3.8m) acquisition by V-Mart Retail of LimeRoad. Partners Anil Kasturi and Anisha Shridhar are leading the firm’s team in the transaction, which was signed on October 17, 2022 and is yet to be completed.
AZB & Partners has also advised Qatar Investment Authority on its acquisition, along with other investors, of equity stake in Byju’s Investment (Think and Learn, doing business as “Byju’s”). Partners Ashwath Rau, Atreya Bhattacharya and Nikunj Maheshwari led the firm’s team in the transaction, which was valued at approximately Rs20 billion (US$242m) and was completed on October 17, 2022.
Baker McKenzie has advised Yageo on its binding commitment with Schneider Electric to acquire its Telemecanique Sensors business. The proposed all-cash acquisition values the Telemecanique Sensors’ business at an enterprise value of €723 million (US$715.4m), with an estimated equity value of approximately €686 million (US$678.8m), assuming customary adjustments at closing, and will be financed entirely through existing cash. Partners Louis Hsieh and Lawrence Lee led the firm’s team in the transaction.
Baker McKenzie has also advised APG Asset Management, the investment manager of the largest pension provider in the Netherlands, on its joint venture with CapitaLand Investment, a leading global real estate investment manager with a strong Asia foothold, to establish an Asia-focused self-storage platform. The 90:10 joint venture, to which APG and CapitaLand have committed an initial equity investment of S$570 million (US$404m) that could potentially go up to S$1.14 billion (US$807.6m), will fund the acquisition of Extra Space Asia (ESA) and its expansion needs. ESA is one of the region’s largest self-storage businesses, with about 70 owned and leased facilities spanning over one million square feet of net lettable area across Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo. The acquisition of ESA comes with an experienced management team. Following the acquisition, ESA will be re-positioned into operating company / property company structure to facilitate future expansion. Partner Jason Ng led the firm’s team in the transaction.
Clifford Chance has advised leading investment management firm Ares SSG Capital Management on the establishment of a joint venture with listed property developer New World Development Company for the construction, development, marketing and sale of a commercial complex located at Wing Hong Street in Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Scheduled for completion in late 2023, the joint venture captures anticipated demand for grade-A commercial properties in Kowloon, one of Hong Kong’s core business districts. Partners Amy Ho and Maggie Lo led the firm’s team in the transaction.
JSA has represented home building materials platform Mistry.Store (Infraequity Technologies) and its founders Vaibhav Vijay Poddar and Bhanu Mahajan on a funding round led by Omidyar Network. Mistry.Store is a digital platform which simplifies the procurement/purchase of various home construction materials, and enables home interior professionals to procure affordable and high-quality building materials on behalf of their customers. Waveform VC and Bharat Founders Fund, along with Maninder Gulati (OYO), Vasant Sridhar (OfBusiness), Sumer Juneja (SoftBank), Vikram Chopra (Cars24), Rohit Kapoor (Swiggy), Alok Mittal (Indifi) and Sharad Goenka (Globalfaces) and others, also participated in the round. Partner Kartik Jain led the firm’s team in the transaction.
JSA is also representing JSW Cement on the 100 percent acquisition of Springway Mining from India Cements. Springway Mining owns limestone-bearing land in Madhya Pradesh, and this acquisition provides JSW Cement access to substantial limestone reserves pursuant to a mining lease. JSW Cement will be investing about Rs32 billion (US$386.7m) to set up two greenfield cement manufacturing facilities in central India. Partners Upendra Nath Sharma and Kartik Jain, supported by partners Vishnu Sudarsan, Kartikeya GS, Bharat Bhushan Sharma, Kumarmanglam Vijay (direct tax practice head) and Vaibhav Choukse (competition law practice head), are leading the firm’s team in the transaction.
Maples and Calder has advised MC Hologram on a business combination with Golden Path Acquisition, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company listed on the Nasdaq, via Cayman Islands statutory merger of Golden Path’s wholly-owned subsidiary with and into MC Hologram, with MC Hologram becoming the surviving company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Golden Path. As a result of the merger and business combination, existing MC Hologram shareholders received approximately 44.6 million ordinary shares of Golden Path (which was renamed to MicroCloud Hologram), representing approximately 84.07 percent of the total issued shares of MicroCloud Hologram. Following the business combination, MicroCloud Hologram continues to be listed on the Nasdaq. Completed on September 16, 2022, the transaction values MC Hologram, its subsidiaries and businesses at US$450 million. Hong Kong corporate partner Derrick Tan led the firm’s team in the transaction.
Maples and Calder has also acted as Cayman Islands counsel to Social Capital Suvretta Holdings I, a Cayman Islands special purpose acquisition company formed by SCS Sponsor I and listed on the NASDAQ, on its business combination with Boston-based Akili Interactive Labs. Social Capital, led by Chamath Palihapitiya and Kishen Mehta, is focused on identifying and investing in innovative and agile biotechnology companies. Akili is a leading digital medicine company pioneering the development of cognitive treatments through game-changing technologies. The business combination was effected via migration of Social Capital out of Cayman Islands and registration via continuation as a Delaware corporation. Karibu Merger Sub, a Delaware subsidiary of Social Capital, merged with and into Akili, with Akili surviving the merger as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Social Capital. Upon consummation of the business combination, Akili commenced trading on the Nasdaq on August 22, 2022. Akili raised more than US$163 million from the business combination. The combined company is valued at an equity value post-money of up to US$1 billion. Partner Matt Roberts led the firm’s team in the transaction, while Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as US counsel. Goodwin Procter acted as US counsel to Akili Interactive Labs.
Rajah & Tann Singapore has acted for Float, producer of Singapore’s first oat milk brand “OATSIDE”, on an approximately S$90 million (US$63.8m) Series A fundraising round led by Temasek Holdings and GGV Capital, which valued Float at over S$290 million (US$205.4m) on a post-completion basis. Partner Tan Mui Hui led the firm’s team in transaction.
R&T Asia (Thailand), member firm of Rajah & Tann Asia, has acted for Krung Thai Bank on the grant of a β1 billion (US$26.6m) loan to Krung Thai Asset Management, as trustee of DTP Hospitality Freehold and Leasehold Real Estate Investment Trust (DTPHREIT), with buy-back condition. The loan is to be utilised for the investment in hotel and serviced apartment properties, with the total investment of DTPHREIT being approximately β4.1 billion (US$109m) in value. Partner Piroon Saengpakdee led the firm’s team in the transaction.
S&R Associates has also represented asset lifecycle manager OPC Asset Solutions on its acquisition by CHG-MERIDIAN AG, an international technology management and financing company for IT, industrial and healthcare technology. Partners Sanjeev Adlakha and Prachi Goel led the firm’s team in the transaction.
S&R Associates has represented IRB Infrastructure Developers on the Rs21.33 billion (US$257.7m) investment by IRB and an affiliate of GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund) in Meerut Budaun Expressway (MBE), the concessionaire for a portion of the six-lane Ganga Expressway toll-road project in Uttar Pradesh. IRB and GIC subscribed to equity shares aggregating to Rs5.33 billion (US$64.4m) in the ratio of 51:49 in MBE, and will subscribe to non-convertible debentures issued by MBE aggregating to Rs15.99 billion (US$193.2m) in multiple tranches linked to certain milestones for funding the project. Partners Sandip Bhagat and Pratichi Mishra led the firm’s team in the transaction.
WongPartnership has acted as transaction counsel to Borneo.io, a real-time data security pioneer backed by Vulcan Capital and Wavemaker Partners, on its acquisition of Spanish start-up Pridatect, which offers privacy solutions for SMEs, and with which Borneo.io seeks to expand its client base into Europe and Latin America. Partner Kyle Lee led the firm’s team in the transaction.
WongPartnership has also acted as Singapore counsel for leading global investment firm Francisco Partners on its acquisition of healthcare data and analytics assets from IBM. The assets were formerly part of IBM’s Watson Health business. The assets acquired by Francisco Partners include extensive and diverse data sets and products, including Health Insights, MarketScan, Clinical Development, Social Program Management, Micromedex and imaging software offerings. Partner Vivien Yui led the firm’s team in the transaction.