by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

Offshore law firm, Conyers Dill and Pearman has advised on a cross-border deal involving the listing of HKT Limited’s shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The shares of HKT Limited, a Cayman Island company with British Virgin Islands subsidiaries, were stapled to and listed along with the units of HKT Trust on the Hong Kong exchange. HKT Trust and HKT Limited trade together as a stapled security.

Christopher Bickley and Richard Hall of Conyers Dill & Pearman acted as the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands counsel on the listing of the share stapled units issued by HKT Trust and HKT Limited on the SEHK by way of Global offering. Other firms involved included Reed Smith Richards Butler, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and King & Wood Mallesons. In recognition of the innovative deal, the firms recently received Equity Market Deal of the Year at The Macallan ALB Hong Kong Law Award 2012.

Last year, HKT Trust, which provides telecommunications products and services in Hong Kong, became the the first single investment trust to list in Hong Kong. Conyers Dill and Pearman said that the use of the innovative trust structure was designed to meet the commercial objectives of the issuer and allow the HKT group to focus principally on distributions, as distinct from other listed issuers on the exchange. The trust structure and associated arrangements, including the role of the trustee manager in managing the trust and the issue of share stapled units, should also provide investors with all the protections generally available to holders of shares under applicable laws, rules and codes in Hong Kong, whilst keeping the flexibility of the trust structure, the firm said.

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