Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Huatai Securities on its historic London GDR listing under the new Shanghai-London Stock Connect scheme

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has acted as English, US and Hong Kong legal counsel to Huatai Securities, a leading technology-enabled securities group in China, on its historic offering and listing of global depositary receipts (GDRs) representing its Shanghai-listed A shares on the London Stock Exchange.

Huatai Securities has existing equity listings in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and is the first Chinese company to sell GDRs representing its shares in London. The transaction is the first to be conducted under the new Shanghai-London Stock Connect scheme, which will directly link the Chinese and European capital markets by providing fungibility between London and Shanghai listed securities.

The offering will raise proceeds for the Company of at least US$1.538 billion and up to US$1.692 billion if the deal is upsized pursuant to the exercise of an over-allotment option. In addition to being the largest GDR offering in the UK since 2013, the transaction is also the largest international offering by a Chinese financial institution since Postal Savings Bank of China's US$8 billion IPO in 2016.

Clifford Chance's top-ranked equity capital markets teams in London and China have been working closely with clients and stakeholders on various aspects related to the scheme and the firm is very much at the forefront of advising on this ground-breaking project.

Partner Amy Lo said, "We are proud to advise Huatai Securities on this landmark listing, which paves the way for global investors and companies to access the UK's and China's capital markets. I am particularly proud of how seamlessly our teams worked across borders to bring this momentous transaction to fruition."

The Clifford Chance team was led by partners Amy Lo in Hong Kong, Jean Thio in Shanghai and Iain Hunter in London, along with specialist advice from China-Co-Managing Partner Tim Wang in Shanghai and Co-Head of China Desk Maggie Zhao in London. The partners were supported by counsel Corey Zhang, associates Emma Bao and Tao Yang in Hong Kong, and senior associate James Spencer and associate James Koessler in London.

Clifford Chance has previously advised Huatai Securities on its US$4.5 billion Hong Kong listing in 2015, as well as a number of debt capital markets offerings.