Baker McKenzie recently advised West Knighton in relation to the delisting and privatization of Cityneon Holdings from the Singapore Exchange.
West Knighton is a special purpose vehicle owned by Cityneon executive chairman and Group CEO Ron Tan and Hong Kong entrepreneur and investor Johnson Ko Chun-shun. Cityneon specializes in transforming customer and brand experiences, encompassing four business divisions – interior architecture, experiential environments, events and exhibitions.
The company creates licensed interactive exhibitions based on blockbuster entertainment franchises such as Marvel’s Avengers superheroes, Jurassic Park and Transformers.
Baker McKenzie said in a statement that West Knighton acquired a 68.95% stake in Cityneon in an off-market transaction and launched a mandatory unconditional cash offer for the company’s remaining shares to take the company private.
Cityneon’s shares were delisted from the Singapore Exchange on 1 February, and the privatization was completed on 20 February 2019. The transaction provided West Knighton with greater management control and flexibility in the implementation of strategic and operational initiatives of the company.
Christina Lee, a partner in Baker McKenzie Hong Kong and Lean Min-tze, a principal in the corporate and securities practice group at Baker McKenzie’s Singapore member firm Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow, led on the transaction. They were supported by a cross-office team comprising Betty Wong and Erika Wan, special counsel in Hong Kong, Annie Wat, (associate) in Beijing, and Kah Chin Chu (principal), and Max Lee, Liang Jun Ong and Yixian Zhao, (associates) in Singapore.
“Complex timing, financing and security structure considerations combined to make it impractical for the transaction to be structured as a voluntary cash offer and made this a challenging transaction to execute,” said Lean.
