Deacons and Simmons & Simmons are acting on the IPO and Hong Kong stock exchange debut listing of the Hong Kong Government-backed Tradelink Electronic Commerce.

Hong Kong-based corporate finance partner Ronny Chow is leading the Deacons team that advised sponsor DBS Asia Capital and a underwriting syndicate that included lead manager Daiwa Securities, and co-managers BoCom Securities, CIMB-GK Securities and Sun Hung Kai Securities.

Hong Kong-based corporate finance partner Henry Ong heads up the Simmons team advising Tradelink on its plans to raise up to HK$300m (US$39m) through the listing by selling 233.3 million shares at HK$1.09 to HK$1.29 each.

The listing, on which accountants KPMG also advised, will take place on 28 October - with 75% of the shares coming from the Hong Kong Government, which is reducing its stake in Tradelink from about 42% to between 12% and 17%. The remainder of the shares offered in the IPO were new.

Tradelink was the first government-backed provider of an electronic platform for the handling of certain official trade-related documents and other industry-related services in Hong Kong. Capitalising on its first mover advantage gained from the previously exclusive government franchise (which has since expired on 1 January 2004), Tradelink has captured market shares of between 94% to 100% for its handling of official trade-related documents in Hong Kong.

Tradelink's founding shareholders includes HSBC, Swire Pacific, Standard Chartered Bank, PCCW-HKT, China Resources, HATCL, Modern Terminals, TAL Apparel, HIT Enterprises, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, The Federation of Hong Kong Industries and Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics.

Deacons attorney Christopher Liu, who is a member of Chow's team advising the sponsor and underwriting syndicate, told ALB: "[Tradelink] boasts a background of impressive founding shareholders, and we had to take into account suggestions from all sides."

Liu added: "With the Hong Kong Government involvement, we had to be cautious - particularly in light of the recent Link deal."

A share price of HK$1.25 each for Tradelink translates into a yield of 7% this year. This is likely to be higher than the expected Link REIT offer of a 6% yield when it relaunches its share offering next month.