Norton Rose calls on international team to help with HSBC rights issue

Norton Rose has won a trophy mandate from key client HSBC, advising on its £12.5bn rights issue.

US firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton also ­represented the bank, while Linklaters and Shearman & Sterling ;acted ;for ;the ­underwriters.

Norton Rose corporate partner Martin Scott led the team alongside London-based corporate partners Nick Adams and Chris ­Randall and Hong Kong-based corporate partners Richard ;Crosby ;and Liza Lee.

The firm is a regular adviser to HSBC, although many of its instructions have been outside the UK.

In October 2008 Norton Rose advised HSBC on the $608m (£332.3m) acquisition of Indonesian bank Ekonomi.

Scott said the rights issue required the use of several of the firm’s international offices, as HSBC is listed in Bermuda, France, London, Hong Kong and New York.
“The most difficult thing was the logistics of having to deal with lots of different jurisdictions,” he added.

Linklaters corporate ­partner John Lane represented Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan as underwriters on the HSBC issue.

On US matters, London-based Cleary partner Ashar Qureshi acted for HSBC, while Shearman capital markets partner Richard Price advised the underwriters.