News & Events

At the International Financial Law Review (“IFLR”) Asian Awards 2008 held on March 6, 2008 the Firm won “Equity Deal of the Year” for the IPO of Samsung Card Co., Ltd. (Korea) in connection with its representation of Merrill Lynch and Korean securities companies. The US$620 million Samsung Card IPO comprised a public offering in Korea concurrent with an offering to the international investors under Rule 144A and Regulation S under the Securities Act. As the first ever Korean IPO with an international tranche, the deal pioneered a new issuance model that allows Korean and foreign investors to buy into the same domestically-traded pool of common shares. The Simpson Thacher team that contributed to the successful completion of this transaction included Youngjin Sohn, Kristina Kang and Woojae Kim in Hong Kong, and Ben Applestein (Tax), Brian Robbins, Jeanne Annarumma (ERISA) and Mark Lab (Blue Sky) in New York.

 The Samsung Card IPO was also awarded the “Best Korea Deal” of 2007 by FinanceAsia, a leading financial publishing company covering Asia’s fast moving financial and capital markets. Click here for more details.

At the IFLR Asian Awards 2008, Simpson Thacher was also nominated for (i) Equity Deal of the Year for the Alibaba.com Limited (China) Hong Kong listing IPO and China Railway (China) Hong Kong H-share and Shanghai A-share dual listing IPO; (ii) M&A Deal of the Year for the Wal-Mart/Seiyu Acquisition; and (iii) Equity Team of the Year.

Each year, International Financial Law Review (“IFLR”), one of the world’s leading magazines for in-house counsel and practitioners in the financial markets, celebrates innovation, quality, diversity and commitment to developing legal services in Asia through its IFLR Asian Awards ceremony.