July has been a strong month for M&A according to IFLR1000's selection of deal announcements, with healthy dealflow in the global equity capital markets and slightly less activity in the debt space across a host of sectors. In the past month there have been many deals cutting across practice areas in energy, financial services, banking, and technology and telecommunications.
The dearth in high-end Hong Kong IPOs has generated buzz as the city-state struggles to hang on to its reputation as the top listings market. However, July produced two deals of note as Zhongyuan Bank—the largest city commercial bank in China's Henan province—undertook the second-largest HKSE IPO of 2017 raising $1 billion; and China Literature—a Tencent majority owned e-book company—hit the market raising $800 million. Globally, Atacadão—the Brazilian subsidiary of hypermarket Carrefour—offered over 297 million shares as part of its $1.4 billion IPO, which was Brazil's largest in four years.
M&A deal values were close to $60 billion at the top end of the market, with Kirkland & Ellis supplementing its high volume practice with high value deals such as Cosco Shipping Holdings $6.3 billion acquisition of Orient Overseas and Nesta Investment Management's $12 billion acquisition of Global Logistic Properties. Having said that, it comes as no surprise that Kirkland & Ellis took the double and reclaimed pole position in the deal volume table for the tenth time in the last 12 months with 28 deals.
Elsewhere—from Lithuania to Spain—green bonds have been flourishing. ADIF-AV, which is part of the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, issued the first ever green bond by a publicly-owned company at €600 million; and Lithuania's Lietuvos Energija completed its debut Reg S €300 million green bond under the company's €1 billion EMTN programme, which was also given the highest green designation by the Center for International Climate Research.
In the UK, M&A transactions in the payment processing sector has been a trend as Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners launched a £2.9 billion takeover bid for Paysafe, and Vantiv acquired UK’s leading payment processor Worldpay Group for £9.1 billion. Moreover, LKK Health Products Group—a Hong Kong herbal products manufacturer—acquired 20 Fenchurch Street—the 'Walkie Talkie' building—for £1.28 billion from Land Securities and the Canary Wharf Group in the latest deal in a string of high profile London real estate acquisitions by Asian investors this year.
If you have any public deal announcements you would like us to take into account for our reports please send them to - amajeed@iflr1000.com
The EMEA launch of IFLR1000 Deal Data—a fully searchable database whose BETA version went live in May last year—is well underway with Asia-Pacific close at hand. This database of significant deal records from over 120 countries will include searchable and filterable data on the most significant legal transactions from around the globe, and all of our featured monthly deals will be included along with many more garnered from the IFLR1000's own research, press releases and other deal announcements.
Below you can access our top picks for July 2017 linked to their record in the new deals database.
Adam Majeed - Asia-Editor
Mergermarket table 1 - Law firms by global M&A deal value
Mergermarket table 2 - Law firms by global M&A deal volume
Deal 1: ADIF-AV €600 million 0.8% green bond issue
Jurisdictions: Spain
Deal type: Investment grade bond/note issue, Green bond issue
Industry sectors: Energy, Government and public policy
Deal 2: Attica Bank €1.3 billion NPL securitisation
Jurisdictions: Greece, Luxembourg
Deal type: Investment grade bond/note issue, Private acquisition, Securatisation
Industry sectors: Banking, Financial services
Deal 3: Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners £2.9 billion bid for Paysafe Group
Jurisdictions: United States, Isle of Man, United Kingdom
Deal type: Public acquisition
Industry sectors: Financial services, Technology and telecommunications
Deal 4: Budapest Airport €1.32 billion debt restructuring
Jurisdictions: United Kingdom, Hungary
Deal type: Financial restructuring, Investment grade bond/note issue
Industry sectors: Transport, Aviation
Deal 5: Carrefour B3 IPO
Jurisdictions: Brazil
Deal type: IPO
Industry sectors: Consumer goods and services
Deal 6: Cheung Kong Property Holdings and CK Infrastructure Holdings €4.5 billion acquisition of Ista
Jurisdictions: China, Germany
Deal type: Private acquisition
Industry sectors: Energy, Technology and telecommunications
Deal 7: China Literature HKSE IPO
Jurisdictions: Hong Kong
Deal type: IPO
Industry sectors: Technology and telecommunications
Deal 8: Cosco Shipping Holdings $6.3 billion acquisition of Orient Overseas
Jurisdictions: China, Hong Kong
Deal type: Public acquisition
Industry sectors: Shipping
Deal 9: CTE €2.92 billion bond issue
Jurisdictions: France
Deal type: Investment grade bond/note issue
Industry sectors: Energy
Deal 10: Didi Chuxing and SoftBank $2 billion investment in Grab
Jurisdictions: Singapore
Deal type: Financial investment
Industry sectors: Technology and telecommunications
Deal 11: KKR $2.8 billion acquisition of WebMD Health
Jurisdictions: United States
Deal type: Public acquisition
Industry sectors: Healthcare
Deal 12: Landis+Gyr SIX Swiss Exchange IPO
Jurisdictions: Switzerland
Deal type: IPO
Industry sectors: Energy
Deal 13: Lietuvos Energija €300 million debut green bond issue
Jurisdictions: Lithuania
Deal type: Green bond issue
Industry sectors: Energy
Deal 14: LKK Health Products Group £1.28 billion acquisition of 20 Fenchurch Street (Walkie Talkie)
Jurisdictions: United Kingdom
Deal type: Private acquisition
Industry sectors: Real estate
Deal 15: Markel $919 million acquisition of State National Companies
Jurisdictions: United States
Deal type: Public acquisition
Industry sectors: Insurance
Deal 16: MSU Energy Group $230 million financing
Jurisdictions: Argentina
Deal type: Project finance
Industry sectors: Energy
Deal 17: Nesta Investment Management S$16 billion acquisition of Global Logistic Properties
Jurisdictions: China, Singapore
Deal type: Private acquisition
Industry sectors: Logistics
Deal 18: Vantiv £9.1 billion acquisition of Worldpay Group
Jurisdictions: United States, United Kingdom
Deal type: Public acquisition, Scheme of arrangement
Industry sectors: Financial services
Deal 19: Zhongyuan Bank HKSE IPO
Jurisdictions: Hong Kong
Deal type: IPO
Industry sectors: Banking
Reporters
Sam Duke - Editor
Adam Majeed - Asia-Pacific Editor
Ben Naylor - EMEA Editor
Jon Moore - Journalist EMEA
Anna Kozakova - Journalist EMEA
Wai Yee Tsang - Journalist Asia-Pacific
Rani Mehta - Journalist Latin America
Kurt Stumpo - Journalist - North America and the Caribbean
Katrin Kostadinova - Data Analyst - Global