Allen & Overy has advised Tesco’s property fund in Thailand on its $602 million initial public offering (IPO), the country's largest listing since 2006.
Tesco Lotus Retail Growth Freehold & Leasehold Property Fund (TLGF), a unit of Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer, had priced the IPO at 10.4 baht (34 U.S. cents) per unit, or at the top of an indicative range, Reuters reported earlier. The listing eventually raised 18.4 billion baht ($602 million), making it Thailand's biggest offering in about six years and Asia's second-largest so far in 2012.
The fund's shares will start trading in Bangkok in mid March. It comprises 17 retail properties across Thailand, each built around a Tesco Lotus hypermarket. The Tesco Lotus chain, with dozens of markets of varying sizes across Thailand, dwarfs its competitors Carrefour and BigC.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the IPO was the biggest in Thailand since Rayong Refinery's $719 million listing in May 2006. The newspaper added that U.S. fund manager Capital Research & Management subscribed to the IPO as a cornerstone investor, taking up about 110 million units.
The Allen & Overy team was lead by Bangkok partner Suparerk Auychai and included Hong Kong partner James Grandolfo, Bangkok counsel Anchalee Limviriyalers, and Singapore counsel Eric Gonzalez. The team also included Bangkok associates Noparat Kaewsringarm, Koonlacha Charungkit-anant, Sopita Bhakdibhumi, Chris Burkett and Suthida Chettasiripong in addition to Hong Kong associates Kurt Sherwood and Adam Heyd.
“The IPO comes as Thailand is still recovering from last year’s floods, which severely damaged exports and domestic demand,” said Suparerk in a statement. “Despite the economic effects of the floods for Thailand, we have pulled through and the largest property fund IPO in Thailand to date has been successfully launched. This demonstrates the desire of the parties involved to make sure this listing was successful and provides a promising sign for Thailand’s economy.”
Weerawong, Chinnavat & Peangpanor acted as local counsel, and Shearman & Sterling acted as international counsel to the underwriters. ALB
Ranajit Dam is Southeast Asia editor at ALB. Follow him on Twitter: @RanajitDam_ALB.
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