Foreign firms snap up Asian IPOs

It is no wonder local law firms are so aggrieved given the amount of headline grabbing IPO work farmed out to foreign firms within the region in recent weeks.

First, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, led by Hong Kong partner Kay Ian Ng, and Sullivan & Cromwell scooped mandates to advise on the world's biggest share listing for six years, the $9.8bn (£5.22bn) Bank of China IPO.

Then Linklaters, led by Hong Kong partner Sanghoon Lee, secured an instruction advising Macquarie Korea Infrastructure Fund on its $1bn (£532.49m) IPO, the second largest in Korea in the past 12 months and second largest IPO in Asia (excluding Japan) to date this year.

Meanwhile, White & Case also got in on the action, advising Thai Beverage Public Company on its $850m (£452.61m) IPO, the second largest ever in Singapore.

Local law firms King & Wood and Jun He Law Offices did, however, benefit from the flurry of deals, handling local law aspects of the Bank of China float. However, it was foreign firms Shearman & Sterling and Allen & Overy that advised the underwriters.

Shearman also advised the underwriters on the Thai Beverage float.