For its Asia Pacific Innovative Lawyers special report, the Financial Times profiled the Sullivan & Cromwell team that advised China Mobile on its public share offering on the Shanghai stock exchange—making China Mobile the first Hong Kong-incorporated, Hong Kong-listed company to have its shares listed on a stock exchange in mainland China. S&C Hong Kong partner Kay Ian Ng told FT that the listing has “opened the path for other Hong Kong-incorporated companies” and provided a “playbook.”
To complete the IPO, S&C helped China Mobile overcome a multitude of challenges, including the issues under Hong Kong company and securities laws, as well as stock exchange listing rules. The FT called this offering “an unlikely success story” that “was significant not only for the amount of cash raised, but also for accelerating investment flows between China and the rest of the world.”
The China Mobile IPO was the largest main board IPO in mainland China in 10 years and the largest in telecommunications globally in 20 years. Since the listing, China Mobile’s share price has increased by about ten percent in a declining market.
“The attraction is to align your customer base with your shareholder base,” Kay Ian told the FT.
The S&C team included Kay Ian Ng, Gwen Wong and Ching-Yang Lin.