Cleary and Linklaters crowned kings of IPOs

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Linklaters have secured top spots in the Bloomberg Q3 2006 league rankings for global IPO issuer and manager legal advisers respectively.

Cleary Gottlieb has advised as issuers’ counsel on seven deals worth a total of $16.6bn, while Linklaters has advised as managers’ counsel on 25 deals worth $20bn, according to Bloomberg’s preliminary rankings.

The Q3 period relates to 1 January 2006 to 21 September 2006.

Cleary Gottlieb’s IPO deals include advising Rosneft on its controversial $10.65bn IPO in July, while it also advised Italian oil refining company Saras on its €2.1bn IPO in May, and Mexico’s Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico’s $1bn IPO in March.

Linklaters was bolstered by its role advising the underwriters on the Rosneft IPO, while the firm is also understood to have bagged the role advising the underwriters of the planned Severstal IPO.

The deals have been enough to keep both firms at the top of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region tables in both categories.

Herbert Smith was celebrating after being ranked second for EMEA IPO manager adviser with four deals worth $5.1bn. The firm was ranked 35th for the same period last year, and shot up the table on the back of advice to the underwriters on the £4.65bn IPO of Standard Life in July.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, with seven deals worth $5.6bn was ranked second on the IPO issuer adviser table, ahead of Davis Polk & Wardell which moved up from 51st last year with five deals worth $2.6bn.

Clifford Chance was the most active EMEA issuer adviser with eight deals, while Linklaters 20 instructions from IPO managers blew the competition away when ranked by deal count.