Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) has provided Hong Kong and US law advice to China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited and UBS Securities Hong Kong Limited, the joint sponsors and the underwriters in the global offering and listing of H shares of China Tourism Group Duty Free Corporation Limited on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (‘HKSE’). The transaction raised proceeds of approximately HK$16.2bn (US$2.07bn) before any exercise of the Over-allotment Option, making this Hong Kong’s highest-value IPO to date in 2022. Listing of the shares commenced today (25 August 2022).
China Tourism Group Duty Free Corporation Limited was the largest travel retail operator in the world by sales revenue in both of the past two years, holding a 24.6 per cent market share of the global travel retail industry in 2021. It is the only retail operator in China covering all duty-free sales channels, which include port stores, offshore stores, downtown stores, cruise stores, inflight stores and ship-supply stores.
The Freshfields team advising on the transaction was led by China Chairman Teresa Ko, head of China ECM Richard Wang and partner Calvin Lai. They were supported by senior associates Sabrina Ma and Quan Zhou and associates Xinyu Wang, Jianhua Feng, Zedong Liu and Zhuolin Li.
