Clifford Chance joins burgeoning list of law firms on MegaFon IPO
Clifford Chance has added its name to the growing roster of advisers on Russian mobile phone group MegaFon’s London IPO, winning a mandate from BNY Mellon in its role as depository bank.
City capital markets partner Bruce Kahl and finance senior associate Madeleine Yates acted for the New York bank in relation to the listing, with Yates the primary adviser.
The float also saw Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer win headline roles.
Cleary London capital markets and finance partner Raj Panasar and Moscow corporate and finance partner Yulia Solomakhina advised MegaFon, in which billionaire oligarch Alisher Usmanov holds a controlling stake.
Freshfields City capital markets partner Peter Allen advised global co-ordinators Morgan Stanley and Sberbank CIB (formerly Troika Dialog) and joint bookrunners Citi, Credit Suisse and VTB Capital (12 September 2012).
The float initially raised $1.7bn (£1.1bn), giving the company a market capitalisation of $11.1bn (£6.9bn), but shares fell today (28 November) following the stock-exchange launch.
Background to this deal:
The banking syndicate advised by Freshfields originally included Goldman Sachs, which later pulled out (10 October 2012).
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld Moscow capital markets partner Varun Gupta and London corporate partner Artem Faekov advised major MegaFon shareholder AF Telecom, while US rival White & Case advised Swedish shareholder TeliaSonera.
The White & Case team included partner Allan Taylor and associate Marcus Booth in London, as well as local partner Darina Lozovsky and associate Dmitry Lapshin in Moscow.
