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• Introduction to Capital Markets
• » Equity Offerings
• Investment-Grade Debt Offerings
• High-Yield Debt Offerings
• Privatizations and Emerging Markets
• Equity Derivatives
• Global Capital Markets

Our vast experience in all types of legal, financial, regulatory and corporate governance issues makes us uniquely qualified to assist closely held companies and their underwriters as those companies navigate the shoals of rapid growth, early-stage capital raising and the transition to public ownership. We help management and boards of directors structure intercompany relationships, adopt new charters, address tax and disclosure questions and develop new compensation arrangements, and we help underwriters advise their clients on these matters. As a company makes the transition to public status, we provide detailed, step-by-step guidance to officers and boards on the requirements of public ownership.

Davis Polk is also a leader in helping public companies issue additional equity securities. We have represented all of the leading underwriters as well as numerous issuers, including some of the most distinguished and frequent issuers of securities. For the last 70 years, a substantial portion of our practice has consisted of transactions involving the offering of securities by non-U.S. issuers. In fact, we have been involved in most of the important innovations in global equity offerings that have taken place in the last quarter century.

• Davis Polk ranked 1st as both issuer’s and managers’’ counsel in U.S. equity and equity-related offerings in 2007, according to Thomson Financial.
• Davis Polk ranked 2nd among law firms in combined issuer’s and underwriters’ representations in initial public offerings in 2007, according to IPO Week in Review (January 14, 2008).
• Davis Polk ranked 1st as both issuer’s and managers’ counsel in U.S. convertible offerings in 2007, according to Thomson Financial.

• $6.9 billion SEC-registered offering of non-cumulative perpetual convertible preferred stock by Bank of America
• $4.9 billion concurrent offerings of equity shares by ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank—this is the largest-ever equity offering by an Indian issuer
• €3.85 billion Rule 144A/Regulation S initial public offering of Criteria CaixaCorp, part of “la Caixa” group, the third-largest financial group in Spain—this was the largest-ever Spanish IPO at the time of its completion (now second-largest)
• $3.4 billion Rule 144A/Regulation S IPO by Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros – BM&G, the largest futures exchange in Latin America and the only futures exchange operating in Brazil—this is the second-largest IPO ever by a Latin American issuer
• €2.07 billion Rule 144A/Regulation S initial public offering by Tognum, a German industrial concern—this is the largest IPO in Germany since 2000