Mayer Brown Leads on $1.6 Billion Macau Telecom Acquisition

Mayer Brown JSM is advising Hong Kong Citic Telecom International Holdings Ltd., the telecommunications unit of Chinese state-owned investment firm Citic Group, on its $1.16 billion acquisition of an additional 79 percent stake in Macau’s local landline monopoly, Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau SARL (CTM).

 

Citic Telecom is acquiring the interests of U.K.-based Cable & Wireless Communications, which holds a 51 percent stake in CTM, and Portugal Telecom SGPS, which owns 28 percent. The deal, which will be funded by cash and bank loans, will give Citic Telecom a 99 percent stake in the Macau telecom company, up from the 20 percent stake it first acquired in 2010. English-language newspaper publisher Macau Post Daily owns the remaining one percent stake

 

The transaction is subject to the approval of Citic Telecom shareholders, as well as regulators in Macau and China.

 

Mayer Brown JSM Hong Kong partner Jeckle Chiu is advising Citic Telecom. The company also engaged Chiu when it listed in Hong Kong in 2007.

 

Slaughter and May is advising the sellers with a team led by partners Andrew Jolly in London and Neil Hyman in Hong Kong.
 

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Asia managing partner Robert Ashworth is advising Barclays Capital as financial advisor on the deal. 

 

According to a Bloomberg report, the sellers are shedding their stakes in order to pay back loans and also to streamline their operations and focus on other regions like Central America and the Caribbean.