Cleary Gottlieb represented Citigroup Global Markets Limited and HSBC Bank plc as joint bookrunners in Investcom LLC’s $741 million initial public offering of 59 million Global Depositary Shares. The offering consisted of a placement to institutional investors outside the United States. The GDSs are listed on the London Stock Exchange and the newly-launched Dubai International Financial Exchange. The offering priced on October 6 and closed on October 11.
On October 14 the joint bookrunners exercised their option to purchase an additional 3 million GDSs from the existing shareholder (an entity controlled by Lebanon’s powerful Mikati family) to cover over-allotments, bringing the total offering size to $778 million.
Investcom is an international provider of mobile telecommunications services, operating primarily in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, including Syria, Ghana, Yemen, Benin, Liberia, Cyprus, Guinea-Bissau and Sudan. Investcom was recently awarded a GSM license to build and operate a mobile network in Guinea and also won a bid for one of the two new GSM licenses in Afghanistan. Investcom also provides international carrier services, fixed telephony services in the United Kingdom, and telecommunications engineering and consulting services.