The top deals in Asia last year reveal that practicing corporate law in Asia continues to be a lucrative career choice, with the big firms doing billions worth of business in China, Japan and India.

Some of the biggest deals were initial public offerings. Haiwen & Partners represented China State Construction Engineering Company (CSCEC), China’s largest construction company, in a $6 billion IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the largest A-share IPO since 2007, and the country’s fifth-largest IPO ever.

Morrison & Foerster’s Hong Kong office represented UBS, JPMorgan, and CITIC in a $1.3 billion IPO of China Zhongwang, one of Asia’s biggest manufacturers of extruded aluminum products. The deal made Zhongwang’s chairman into one of China’s richest people.

M&A was again a hot practice area, with Clifford Chance in on top deals between China Minmetals/OzMetals as well as Delta/Buma and Royal Group/Millicom. Davis Polk & Wardwell represented Nikko Cordial Securities in its sale to Sumitomo Mitsui.

China’s telecom industry was restructured with China Unicom’s $15.8 billion sale of CDMA to China Telecom and its $23.8 billion merger with China Netcom, a deal that involved Commerce & Finance Law Office, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Jingtian & Gongcheng, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Linklaters.

Top private equity deals included Sullivan & Cromwell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker helping to represent KKR and Affinity/Oriental Brewery, and Freshfields and Sidley Austin’s involvement in the Warburg Pincus/Transpacific Industries deal.

Equity deals saw Baker & McKenzie representing BW Plantation on an IPO, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton on the introduction of Hutchison Telecommunications. Structured finance deals included a ticket receivables deal with Asiana Airlines that involved O’Melveny & Myers, and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe. Allen & Overy and O’Melveny assisted with an IBK structured note deal as well.

Restructuring deals of the year include the Asia Aluminum deal, which involved Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie, and Davis Polk & Wardwell; and FerroChina was represented by Clifford Chance. And its debt and equity-linked deals of the year included the Bank of East Asia core capital deal (involving Clifford Chance and Linklaters); and Indika senior notes deal (with Allen & Overy and Davis Polk, as well as Sidley Austin).

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