Paul Hastings Advises On Buyout of Maxis Communications

July 05, 2007

Paul Hastings Advises On Buyout of Maxis Communications

South East Asias Largest-Ever Privatization

Hong Kong, July 5, 2007 Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP (Paul Hastings), a leading international law firm, represented a consortium of financial arrangers comprising ABN AMRO Holding NV, Citibank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Standard Chartered, HSBC, CIMB Group, and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ on the buyout of Malaysia's largest mobile phone operator, Maxis Communications by companies controlled by Ananda Krishnan.

The deal values Maxis at US$12 billion, making it South East Asia's largest privatization and one of the largest leveraged buyouts in Asia.

Paul Hastings also represented ABN AMRO in its role as M&A adviser to the acquiror.

Brett W. King, a partner in Paul Hastings Hong Kong office who led the team commented, This transaction marks a significant milestone in public-to-private deals in Asia. Unlike recent LBOs in Asia, this deal was a 100% Asian buyout with no foreign private equity involvement. With the successful LBO of Maxis, I am certain many families that control publicly listed companies in Asia will be considering if they should follow in its footsteps and take their company private."

Commenting on the legal challenges, Mr. King added, "Malaysia has a number of regulatory hurdles that had to be overcome to close this transaction, which made closing the deal somewhat complicated. Nonetheless, the Malaysian authorities were very helpful and ultimately all approvals were granted.

As Asias LBO market continues to mature, Paul Hastings has developed an enviable breadth and depth of experience in navigating the regions various regulatory regimes to close highly structured financings.

The Paul Hastings team was led by finance partners Brett W. King and Alex Regan in Hong Kong.

Paul Hastings Asia leveraged finance group has led the field in structuring and executing leveraged finance transactions in key Asia jurisdictions such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan and Korea. Paul Hastings has advised on some of the most innovative and award-winning leveraged finance transactions in the Asia Region.

Recent deals include:

Advised ABN AMRO on the buyout of Singapore listed company Roly International by private equity firm H&Q Asia Pacific
Advised JP Morgan and ABN AMRO on the LBO of Sabah Forest Industries by a consortium
Advised ABN AMRO and The Royal Bank of Scotland on the LBO of Plantation Timber Products by funds advised by CVC Asia Pacific Limited
Advised JPMorgan on CCMPs buyout of a Korean company that owns, operates, and franchises more than 1,000 retail convenience stores under the Buy The Way brand* Advised Softbank as arranger of a US$600m bridge loan facility and as issuer of Euro 500 million of high yield bonds in connection with Softbanks acquisition of Vodafones mobile communications business in Japan.