Milbank Advises on US$4.5 Billion PETRONAS Offering
Biggest Recent ex-Asia Issue and First Global Corporate Sukuk of 2009
SINGAPORE, 28 August, 2009 – Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP (Milbank) advised on the US$4.5 billion bond offering by Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), one of the world’s largest oil companies. The offering consisted of US$3 billion senior unsecured 10-year notes and US$1.5 billion in Shari’a-compliant five-year Ijara Sukuk Trust Certificates.
The deal is the largest Asia ex-Japan issue in the last five years, the second-largest Asia ex-Japan issue ever, one of the two largest global Sukuks ever and the first global corporate Sukuk in 2009. Milbank represented Morgan Stanley, the Global Coordinator, and CIMB, Citi and Morgan Stanley as joint bookrunners.
“This was a challenging transaction which involved managing two tranches with one governed by English law and Sharia requirements and the other governed by NY law,” said Naomi Ishikawa, partner, Singapore, who led on the deal. “There were some very complicated issues and it was completed within a very aggressive timeline.” Ms. Ishikawa was supported by Singapore associates Adrian Yeo and Ee-lng Ong.
The deal was significantly oversubscribed and was fully placed to institutional and accredited investors. PETRONAS intends to use the net proceeds from the issue for capital expenditures related to the company’s oil and gas development activities and for general corporate purposes.
Other advisers included: Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, special United States counsel to PCL and PETRONAS; Kadir Andri & Partners, Malaysian counsel to PCL and PETRONAS; Zul Rafique & Partners, Malaysian counsel to the Managers, and Lovells (Middle East) LLP, English advisors to the Managers.
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Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a leading global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex and innovative transactions. Our transactional expertise includes Acquisition Finance, Capital Markets, Corporate Finance, Project Finance and other major fields of law practice. Headquartered in New York, Milbank has 10 offices worldwide, including Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.