Korean law firms Shin & Kim and Kim & Chang  as well as international players Cleary Gottlieb and Simpson Thacher have acted on the largest ever public offering by a Korean company: the US$4.4bn IPO of Samsung Life Insurance.

Samsung Life Insurance is the largest life insurance company in Korea and provides coverage to over 12.6 million individuals, roughly 26% of the Korean population. With its debut, Samsung Life becomes the country's fourth-biggest stock with a market capitalisation in excess of KRW23trn, behind only Samsung Electronics, POSCO and Hyundai Motor.

Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley were joint bookrunners for the international tranche of the offering. They were represented by Shin & Kim as to Korean law matters and Simpson Thacher as to US law. Samsung Life turned to Kim & Chang for Korean law advice and Cleary Gottlieb for US matters. 

Samsung Life is the third life insurer to go public in Korea and the second to do so this year. In April Korea Life Insurance, the country's second largest life insurer, raised US$1.6bn in what was at the time the largest offering in Korea since 2006. On this occasion, Davis Polk and Shin & Kim acted for the underwriters, while Simpson Thacher and Lee & Ko acted for Korea Life.

The last few months have been something of a purple patch for Korea's boards, despite the economic uncertainties coming out of Europe. In addition to the offerings or Samsung Life and Korea Life, a number of other top companies have IPOs planned for this year, including Hyundai Home Shopping, Incheon International Airport and another life insurer, Mirae Asset Life.

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