Signs of increased activity in the equity capital markets in Malaysia have emerged and the latest offering comes from JCY International, one of the largest global precision engineering manufacturers of hard-disk drive mechanical components. “The deal was 100% secondary… This is pretty unique in that most IPOs involve some offering by the subject company,” said Michael Sturrock, partner at Latham & Watkins.

The isn’t the first time that Latham & Watkins has worked with co-counsel on the deal – Malaysian firm Zaid Ibrahim & Co. “Zaid Ibrahim & Co took care of the Malaysian aspects of the deal while we looked at issues from the international perspective,” said Sturrock. As is commonplace, the main challenge in co-ordinating the IPO was ensuring that the teams had everything in place in order to list on schedule.

“Both foreign and local investors participated in the offering. The offering gave investors an opportunity to acquire equity in one of the largest global precision engineering manufacturers of hard-disk drive mechanical components,” said Sturrock. As all the shares offered in this IPO are being offered by the selling shareholder, YKY Investments, JCY International will not receive any of the funds raised. Instead the IPO enhances the company’s profile and gives the company the financial flexibility to access equity capital markets in the future to pursue growth opportunities. JCY International currently has operations in Malaysia, Thailand and the PRC.

Latham & Watkins was referred to JCY International by investment bankers.

*The underwriters for this transaction were CIMB Investment Bank, UBS AG (Hong Kong Branch) and UBS Securities Malaysia

Related stories:

• Zaid Ibrahim becomes first Asian law firm in Australia
• Latham appoints Blank Rome real-estate partner
• A&O, Lathams kick-start ManU bond issue