Zul Rafique& partners, Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy have advised on the US$244m initial public offering of CapitaMalls Trust (CMMT) – CapitaMalls Asia’s real estate investment trust on Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad – the securities exchange arm of Bersa Malaysia.

CMMT, the largest “pure-play” (a company devoted to only one line of business) shopping mall REIT in Malaysia by market capitalisation and property value, was represented by Clifford Chance in this transaction. The team advising CapitalMalls Asia is led by Clifford Chance partner Joan Janssen. 

“REIT IPOs are always mammoth undertakings because of the amount of restructuring and other work involved to get the vehicle established. The assets were originally held via fairly complex financing structures which had to be unwound and timed to fit in with the IPO process, although this was mainly handled by the Malaysian counsel,” Janssen said.

A separate team led by partner Edward Bradley and counsel Johannes Huette also represented CapitaMalls Asia in its capacity as selling unitholder. All are based in Singapore.

Other lead counsels were Zul Rafique & partners as Malaysian counsel for the issuer and Allen & Overy as international counsel for the banks involved.

Clifford Chance won the mandate as lead counsel through its existing relationship with CMA. “We have now worked on a number of transactions for the CMA group, having first met on the other side of the table during the group’s IPO,” Janssen said.

In November 2009, Clifford Chance advised the underwriters of CapitaMalls Asia’s US$1.8bn IPO, the largest offering in Singapore since October 2003.ALB

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