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"Sierra Asia delivers. For us in China, they brought access, built bridges, developed commanding positions and accelerated accomplishment in China... and we have been working successfully in China for over a decade.""
Patrick Jenevein
CEO
Tang Energy Group

"Lee guided us through the ins and outs of the Chinese business and entertainment world, allowing us to avoid many of the common mistakes newcomers to China make."
Robert Nederlander
Jr. President
Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment

"I am particularly impressed with Paula's ability to connect with senior Chinese clients. Her proven track record in adapting and excelling in new business environments and her abilities to understand, appreciate and leverage unique cultural intricacies and nuances will be of particular value to her clients."
Charles Li
Chairman
JP Morgan, China

"Lee Sands was essential to our efforts to establish the first sanctioned Cooperative Joint Venture in the highly sensitive youth culture oriented music business in China. The depth of his cultural awareness, linguistic skills and familiarity with Chinese Government personnel and process were the practical key to our success in our market entry strategy."
John Dolan
Former Senior Vice President of Business Development
Sony Music

Lee's "tenacity and street smarts win raves from U.S. business."
Business Week

Lee was commended for "developing a negotiating strategy for persuading China to drop a range of restrictions on foreign companies, and to phase out protection for state-run industries."
The New York Times

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INVESTMENT BANKING ADVISORY

China Debuts on International Capital Markets


Situation

The Chinese government sought to accomplish the first listing of a state-owned enterprise on both the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges, enabling it to access international capital markets.


Challenge

China had not previously completed an international listing for one of its companies. Success was critical, and virtually everything from the structure of the company to the regulation of the capital markets had to be created from scratch. In addition, government officials and company managers did not understand the mindset of international investors nor how shares would be valued and their performance evaluated. Since this was to be the first global offering of a Chinese issuer and the transaction would set a precedent for all future issuances, the government believed it was critical to succeed in all respects.


Solution

Corporate Structure
At the outset, no precedent existed in China for structuring a corporation according to western practices. Our clients' existing structure comprised a variety of related services as well as its primary services. Prior to restructuring, the company contained such entities as a police force, hospitals, restaurants and employee housing, etc. Our principals worked with government officials and company managers to identify those core assets that should be retained in the listed entity and those that should be transferred to another government-owned entity.

Positioning
The management and evaluation of the company as a state owned enterprise was substantially different than the way the company would be viewed by international investors. We helped company executives understand and analyze how their past performance would be evaluated by the market and worked with them to devise a financial strategy for the future. We also helped them develop and communicate their story to the international investment community. Further, we educated the government and the company about corporate governance procedures and expectations in the international market.

Regulations
We explained international market practices and regulations to Chinese government officials and used those practices as a basis for helping our clients to devise new regulations. We also worked with the HKSE and NYSE authorities to coordinate listing and trading procedures, ultimately creating the template for all future joint listings of Chinese companies.

Marketing and Investor Education
We conducted an extensive marketing program to educate Asian, U.S. and European investors about opportunities in China. Just as the Chinese did not understand the practices of the western investors, the western investors were completely unaccustomed to analyzing and understanding the risks and rewards of investing in China. The successful completion of this deal opened the door to the international markets for Chinese issuers.

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