HONG KONG, August 12, 2008 – Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has represented A.K. Khan & Company Ltd. (“AKK”), on the US$350 million sale of its 30% stake in cellular mobile network services provider TM International (Bangladesh) Ltd. to Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, Inc. The sale was conducted through an auction process involving several bidders over a short time.
TMIB is a joint venture between Telekom Malaysia Bhd and AKK, which is part of one of Bangladesh’s largest business groups. Operating under the Arkel brand, TMIB has a 19% share of the Bangladesh market.
“This was a classic complex cross-border deal,” said Anthony Root, head of Milbank’s corporate practice in Asia. “We were involved in an auction process dealing with multiple bidders from several countries, and as advisers to the sellers we needed to adapt our negotiation style to respond effectively to each bidder. ”
The Milbank team included counsel Brad Edmister in Tokyo and associates Sungjin Kang in Hong Kong and Vivian Wang in Beijing. Mr. Root added that Milbank has advised on a number of sell-side M&A transactions in Asia this year, including the US$690 million sale of Mando Corp. to Halla Construction and the US$2.2 billion Arysta Lifescience Corp. sale to Permira Advisors.
Milbank now has approximately 40 lawyers in Asia, nearly half of whom focus on corporate practice, including private equity, M&A and capital markets. The practice is led by Anthony Root, based in Beijing and Hong Kong. Senior members of the Asian team also include Ed Sun, partner in Beijing; Joshua M. Zimmerman, partner, Desiree Woo, of counsel and Weiheng Chen, Asian counsel, in Hong Kong; David Zemans, managing partner and Naomi Ishikawa, partner in Singapore; and Darrel Holstein, partner, and Brad Edmister, counsel, in Tokyo.
Milbank has three decades of experience as a leader in international financial transactions in greater China, India, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. The Firm’s track record includes many of the largest and most complex private equity/M&A deals in Asia, as well as the first Rule 144A and high-yield offerings in Asia, and the first NYSE and LSE listings from China. Milbank’s capital markets lawyers were described as “superb technicians who are able to deliver the sort of results that international clients demand,” by Chambers Global 2007.
About Milbank
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 corporate transactions. Our transactional expertise includes Capital Markets, Corporate Finance, Project Finance, Acquisition Finance and other major fields of law practice. Headquartered in New York, Milbank has 10 offices worldwide, including Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.
Contact
Anthony Root
T: +852-2971-4842 or
+8610-5969-2777
ARoot@milbank.com