Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance wins Finance Team of the Year at the 2013 Legal Business Awards

Clifford Chance received the prestigious Finance Team of the Year Award at the 2013 Legal Business Awards on Thursday 7 February.

The Award recognises work on a "benchmark transaction for HSBC" that saw the launch of the first retail RMB bonds outside of China and Hong Kong, signalling a significant step forward in the internationalisation of the currency and the development of London as a key RMB trading centre.

Clifford Chance partner Andrew Coats comments: "The transaction represented a number of firsts. As well as being the first retail RMB bonds to be issued by a European bank, they were the first to be publicly offered in a number of European countries and admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange's Order Retail Book. This all required a very high degree of coordination from Clifford Chance, especially as the offers had to coincide with a launch event in the City of London attended by the Chancellor."

Fellow partner Habib Motani adds: "This was a landmark transaction which we were proud to be involved in. It marked the launch of London as a major international trading hub for the RMB.  Since then, we have seen a lot of market interest in the currency."

Clifford Chance was also shortlisted in other key categories. They were:

• Restructuring Team of the Year Team : Advising the senior creditors, including RBS, on the financial restructuring of SEAT Pagine Gialle.
• Private Equity Team of the Year Team: Advising new client Cinven on its parallel acquisitions of Mercury Pharma for £465m, and Amdipharm for £367m, in a buy and build strategy aimed at combining the two pharmaceutical businesses
• Competition Team of the Year Team: Advising  Everything Everywhere on its successful application to become the UK's first provider of fourth generation mobile services
• Law Firm of the Year.

The Finance Team of the Year Award represents further recognition for a global team that has helped its clients to take key steps in the development of the offshore RMB market.

In the Chambers Global 2012 rankings for global coverage, Clifford Chance is Tier 1 for Banking and Finance; Asset Finance; Project Finance; Restructuring/Insolvency, and Structured Finance/Derivatives. Clifford Chance is also Asia Pacific Law Firm of the Year, China: International Law Firm of the Year (Chambers Asia Pacific Awards 2012) and China International Law Firm of the Year (Asian Legal Business China Law Awards 2012).

The Clifford Chance Annual Review 2012 provides further insights into Clifford Chance's leadership in the offshore RMB market, having advised on a series of landmark RMB bonds. To read more about our work on mega casino resort Galaxy Casino's RMB1.38 billion bond, as well as other pioneering RMB bonds in Europe, click here.