SINGAPORE, March 12, 2010 ― International Financial Law Review (IFLR) has awarded Milbank its "Asian M&A Deal of the Year" for the US$1 billion Bukit Makmur Mandiri Utama (BUMA) takeover and financing, IFLR also shortlisted Milbank’s Royal Group/Millicom deal in Cambodia for "Asian M&A deal of the Year", the Lumena Resources Hong Kong Stock Exchange IPO for "Asian Equity Deal of the Year", and again nominated the firm for "Most Innovative US Firm in Asia", a category Milbank won in 2009.
BUMA has emerged as one of the key Asia deals for 2010, having already been recognized by two of Asia’s most respected financial publications, Finance Asia and IFR Asia, which earlier this year awarded the transaction "Best Indonesia Deal" and "Indonesian Capital Markets Deal of the Year" respectively.
The BUMA deal involved the reverse takeover of BUMA by Delta Dunia and Northstar Pacific Partners (an affiliate of TPG), through a US$983 million LBO financing package, which included a US$285 million syndicated loan, a US$315 million high yield bond and a US$383 million private placement of Delta shares by Northstar and separate US$350 million purchase of Delta shares by Northstar. Milbank advised Northstar on all aspects of the deal and was instrumental in managing the execution and closing of the entire transaction.
IFLR described the deal as "an unusual twist to conventional M&A" in that the target of the deal raised the financing for its takeover. "BUMA raised approximately US$1 billion to finance its buyout by Delta through a refinancing, a new facility, a bond and an equity offering. BUMA’s management wanted the deal to be a success so used BUMA’s better credit. These fundraisings were documented separately, but were done almost simultaneously and required complex documents to set out rights and protections over shared security."
The BUMA deal team was led by Singapore office managing partner David Zemans, with senior associate Jacqueline Chan playing a leading role, and associates Ee-Ing Ong and Peter Norman in Singapore.