Practice
Mei Lian is a partner in the Finance Group specialising in capital markets and structured finance. She has a broad range of debt and equity capital markets experience, working with issuers as well as underwriters on a variety of different transactions. Mei joined Shearman & Sterling in March 2001.

Mei is recommended in the Legal 500 UK and IFLR 1000 UK directories as being a versatile practitioner. “She’s very sharp and very quick,” says a client. “She applies herself across all disciplines and has a fantastic broad understanding. They’ve brought Mei through on everything from debt trading issues, eurobonds to restructuring. She's always on my special dial list.” – IFLR 1000 UK, 2011.

• Advised Altice, Apax Partners and Deficom Group S.A. on the financing of their acquisition of Numericable’s Belgian and Luxembourg cable business
• Advised Absa Capital, a division of Absa Bank Limited, on the $317 million senior revolving credit facility for Edcon (Proprietary) Limited
• Advised the Qatar Investment Authority in connection with its investment in the Canary Wharf Group, including the take up of its entitlement pursuant to the open offer to shareholders of Songbird Estates plc (the majority shareholder of the Canary Wharf Group), and in connection with the refinancing of the shareholder loan facility granted to Songbird Estates plc
• Advised Citigroup Global Markets Limited, HSBC Bank plc, ING N.V., London Branch and Lloyds TSB Bank plc as mandated lead arrangers in connection with the financing of the Care UK group, comprising a £80 million senior secured revolving credit facility and £250 million senior secured notes due 2017
• Advised BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Merrill Lynch International as joint bookrunners, and a syndicate of banks as managers in relation to the issue by by CDP Financial Inc. of its €750 million 3.50 per cent. fixed rate guaranteed notes due June 2020 guaranteed by The Caisse de dépôt et placement de Québec
• Advised African Barrick Gold plc (ABG) and Barrick Gold Corporation on ABG’s initial public offering on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. The global offering raised a total amount of approximately £581 million, while the market capitalization of ABG immediately following the offering was approximately £2.3 billion. J.P. Morgan Cazenove acted as sponsor to ABG and J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd and Morgan Stanley Securities Limited acted as Joint Global Coordinators for the offering
• Banca IMI, Calyon Crédit Agricole CIB, The Royal Bank of Scotland and UniCredit Group as joint lead managers in connection with the issue by Lottomatica Group S.p.A. of €750 million 5.375 per cent. guaranteed notes due 2016
• Credit Suisse (Singapore) Limited in connection with the issue by Vincom Joint Stock Company of US$100 million 6.00 per cent. convertible bonds
• Qatari investors in connection with their investment in the Canary Wharf group, by way of equity and by way of debt financing
• Abu Dhabi investors in connection with the disposal of approximately 1.3 billion ordinary shares of Barclays PLC (representing approximately 13.5 per cent. of Barclays issued share capital) and £1.25 billion 14 per cent. Step Up Callable Reserve Capital Instruments of Barclays Bank PLC, each by means of accelerated bookbuild offerings managed by Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited
• AngloGold Ashanti Limited and AngloGold Ashanti Holdings Finance plc in connection with the issue by AngloGold Ashanti Holdings Finance plc of US$732.5 million 3.50 per cent. convertible bonds convertible into American Depositary Shares of, and guaranteed by, AngloGold Ashanti Limited
• The lead underwriters of The Royal Bank of Scotland’s US$2.5 billion senior notes offering in the United States, guaranteed by the UK Treasury, in the first offering of debt securities into the United States by a UK bank with the benefit of a UK government guarantee
• Abu Dhabi investors on their subscription of £3.25 billion mandatorily convertible notes, reserve capital instruments and warrants in Barclays plc as part of the approximately £7 billion Barclays capital raising
• JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank as joint lead managers on the issue of US$1.25 billion bonds by Vedanta Resources plc
• Credit Suisse as arranger in relation to the provision of US$85 million senior credit facilities to a group of mining companies, and the issue of warrants in respect of shares in the parent company of the group
• Credit Suisse as arranger in relation to the provision of £92 million senior credit facilities to a group of insurance companies, and the issue of warrants in respect of shares in the parent company of the group. Also involved the granting of certain call options in relation to the shares of certain group companies
• Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft and Morgan Stanley Bank AG as joint lead managers on the issue of €220 million 1.50 per cent convertible bonds by Air Berlin Finance B.V., convertible into shares of Air Berlin plc
• Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs International as joint lead managers in connection with the issue of €750 million subordinated interest-deferrable capital securities due 2066 by Lottomatica S.p.A.
• Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs International as joint lead underwriters in connection with an approximately €1.4 billion rights issue by Lottomatica S.p.A.