Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises on NetLink US$1.68 billion IPO, biggest in Singapore since 2011

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance advised DBS Bank Ltd., Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte., UBS AG, Singapore Branch, as the joint issue managers, and DBS Bank Ltd., Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte., UBS AG, Singapore Branch, Merrill Lynch (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Citigroup Global Markets Singapore Pte. Ltd., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Singapore Branch, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited and United Overseas Bank Limited, as the joint bookrunners and joint underwriters, on Netlink NBN Trust's initial public offering on the Main Board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited for US$1.68 billion* (S$2.3 billion). This is the biggest IPO in Singapore in six years.

The team was led by partner Raymond Tong, with partner Johannes Juette providing US expertise. They were supported by senior associate Jonathan Crandall and associates Claire Neo and Helen Huang.

NetLink NBN Trust designs, builds, owns and operates the passive fibre network infrastructure of Singapore's Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, Next Gen NBN.

This follows the recent announcement that Clifford Chance's Singapore team advised on the international aspects of Malaysia's largest IPO since 2012 for Lotte Chemical raising US$878 million.

Raymond said, “Our team is really proud to be a part of this landmark IPO for Singapore. It has been a very active year for us having also closed on several other headline deals including Malaysia's largest IPO since 2012 for Lotte Chemical."

* US$1.68 billion conversion from Singapore Dollar using an exchange rate of 1.37060 (Oanda.com)