25 November 2004 – LAWFUEL – Legal, law, law firm news – Norton Rose, the international law firm, advised Teather & Greenwood on the
admission to AIM of SovGEM Limited, a newly incorporated Jersey company hoping to
capitalise on the growing appetite among Chinese companies for a listing in the US,
the UK and elsewhere. On the first day of trading (23 November 2004) the market
capitalisation of the company was approximately £12.5 million.
SovGEM intends to invest in privately held Chinese companies that aim to list
outside the country. It has an exclusive deal with Benchmark, a Chinese advisory
firm, which will vet candidate companies.
Stephen Austin, a director of Teather & Greenwood who headed up their team on the
deal, commented:
“We have been delighted to work with SovGEM on this exciting venture. We regard
SovGEM as being well placed to feed the appetite that Chinese companies appear to be
gaining for both the US and UK capital markets and wish them every success. The
transaction was done within a very tight timescale and I would like to thank the
Norton Rose team for all their hard work in ensuring we met the deadlines.”
The Norton Rose team included corporate finance partners Adam Kirby and Stephen
Rigby, and corporate associate Abi Thursfield, with US advice being given by partner
Tom Vita and associate Dagmar von Diessl.
Adam Kirby commented:
“We are very pleased to have acted for long-term client Teather & Greenwood on this
transaction. Investment in China is very much in the news at the moment, and having
access to our Beijing office was a clear advantage.”
Norton Rose has a strong track record in the AIM market. The firm has recently acted
in relation to the AIM IPO of smartFOCUS Group plc, Falkland Oil and Gas Limited,
Western Canadian Coal and one of the first accelerated IPO’s in the UK market, PD
Ports plc.
