CorporateCleary secures lead adviser role on Lotte Shopping's £1.7bn dual listing

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has scooped the lead advisory role on the £1.7bn dual listing of South Korea's largest department store chain Lotte Shopping.

The global IPO will see Lotte list on both the London and Seoul Stock Exchanges.

Lotte estimates that it will raise at least £1.7bn with the flotation, valuing the company at around £6.2bn. The deal will be the largest fundraising ever completed by a private company in South Korea.

Cleary is understood to have secured the work on its reputation, having acted for the issuers in several Korean IPOs.

The US firm was invited to pitch for the role against a number of firms, including Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, which won an instruction from the underwriters Goldman Sachs and Nomura Holdings.

A source close to the deal told The Lawyer: "Cleary Gottlieb has done a lot of work, particularly securities work, for Korean issuers in the past, so it makes sense that it got the instruction."

Hong Kong-based corporate partner Yong Lee is leading the Cleary team on the listing, while Jin-Hyuk Park is heading the Simpson Thacher team.

Lotte's application to list in South Korea is expected to be given the all-clear this week, paving the way for a flotation by mid-February.

The listing is a coup for the London Stock Exchange, which has been competing against New York to attract foreign companies.

The Lawyer contacted the lawyers involved, but they declined to comment.