China Tourism Group Duty Free (CTG Duty Free), the world’s largest travel retailer, has raised HKD16.24 billion (USD2.07 billion) from its IPO on the HKEX on 25 August, replacing Tianqi Lithium as the city’s biggest listing so far this year.
The secondary listing sold approximately 103 million shares at HKD158 each and its primary listing is on the SSE.
Linklaters advised CTG Duty Free on Hong Kong and US laws, led by Iris Leung with support from capital markets partner Lipton Li and corporate counsels Liang Wei and Donnelly Chan. Haiwen & Partners advised CTG Duty Free on PRC law.
Though the number of companies going public in Hong Kong has decreased this year, Linklaters capital markets partner Leung told China Business Law Journal: “CTG Duty Free’s successful listing on the HKEX not only reaffirmed the financing capability of Hong Kong as an international financial centre, and its attractiveness to Chinese companies, but also marked an important milestone for CTG Duty Free in entering the international capital market, laying a solid foundation for its future international development.”
She added that Linklaters had assisted the newly listed company in navigating the increasingly complex regulatory environment and obtaining certain important waivers.
Freshfields acted as Hong Kong and US counsel to the joint sponsors and underwriters, while Jia Yuan Law Offices acted as PRC counsel.
CICC and DBS bank are joint sponsors with an aggregate of 15 investment banks included as underwriters.
Haiwen & Partners’ team was led by partners Huo Chao, Xiao Yi and Xu Qifei, with support from managing partner Zhang Jiping, partners Gao Wei and Fu Yan.
Freshfields’ leading partners are China chairman Teresa Ko, Richard Wang and Calvin Lai.
Jia Yuan’s team was led by the founding partner Yan Yu, senior partner Li Li and partner Wang Jieting, with assistance from senior partner Yi Jiansheng and partner Sun Di.
CTG Duty Free remains the world’s largest travel retailer in 2021 with a performance of EUR9.37 billion, twice as much as the next ranked store South Korea’s Lotte Duty Free, according to The Moodie Davitt Report, a travel retail industry multimedia publisher.
The leading retailer’s prospectus said its profits had continued to rise in the past three years, with net profits of RMB5.47 billion (USD798.62 million), RMB7.11 billion and RMB12.44 respectively.
