Kirkland & Ellis acted as the Hong Kong legal adviser to the underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and BOCI, in the US$580 million initial public offering of Alberta, Canada, incorporated Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. (Stock code: 2012), which debuted its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today.

The deal involved a public offering in Hong Kong and an international private placement (including Rule 144A sales in the United States). Premium Investment Corporation (a wholly owned subsidiary of China Investment Corporation), Sinopec Century Bright Capital Investment Limited and EIG Management Company, LLC acted as cornerstone investors in the initial public offering. Major shareholders of Sunshine Oilsands include prominent Chinese investors such as Orient International Resources Group Limited, Charter Globe Limited (an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of China), China Life Insurance (Overseas) Company Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of China Life Insurance (Group) Company Limited) and Cross-Strait Common Development Fund Co. Limited.

The deal is the first listing by an Alberta, Canada, incorporated company in Hong Kong, and the first listing in Hong Kong by a company incorporated in a Canadian jurisdiction where all assets and operations are based in Canada.

The Kirkland team was led by Hong Kong capital markets partners Dominic Tsun and Li-Chien Wong, who, prior to joining the Firm in October 2011, had completed the Hong Kong listings of SouthGobi Energy Resources Ltd. and China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd., the other two Canadian resource companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

They were supported by Hong Kong corporate associates Stephanie Lau and Arthur Tso. The other members of the Kirkland team were Angela Zhang, Allison Hune, Richard Chang and Jennifer Feng.

The principal operations of Sunshine Oilsands are the exploration for, and development and production of, oil from a diverse portfolio of oil sands mineral leases. Sunshine Oilsands is the largest holder of non-partnered oil sands leases by area in the Athabasca oil sands region, the most prolific oil sands region in Alberta, Canada.