Slaughter and May has taken a lead role on Prada's $2.1bn (£1.3bn) Hong Kong listing alongside Italian best friend Bonelli Erede Pappalardo and US outfit Davis Polk & Wardwell.

The initial public offering (IPO), which went live on the Hong Kong exchange today (24 June), marks the first Hong Kong listing by an Italian company.

Slaughters is advising Prada with a team led by Hong Kong capital markets partners Laurence Rudge and Benita Yu.

Yu said: "There is definitely an increasing interest from Italian companies in the region, and this deal in itself will raise the profile of the possibility of Italian companies listing here.

"We were very pleased to win a role as the Hong Kong counsel to Prada on the deal, as it has allowed us to get to grips with the nitty-gritty issues that face Italian companies which want to list in Hong Kong, and which we hope would leave us in a good position to capture more inbound work."

Bonelli is acting as Italian counsel to Prada led by Milan corporate partner Carlo Montagna and founding partner Sergio Erede, while Milan partner Stefano Simontacchi is advising on the tax aspects. Davis Polk is also advising the fashion house as US counsel, with Hong Kong corporate partner James Lin and London tax partner John Paton heading up the firm's team.

Clifford Chance is advising the underwriters, which include Goldman Sachs and CSLA, the Asian brokerage unit of Calyon, with a team including Hong Kong capital markets partner Virginia Lee, Milan banking and finance partner Filippo Emanuele and Milan capital markets partner Alberta Figari.

The IPO follows the listing of fellow luxury goods company L'Occitane on the Hong Kong stock exchange last year and is a further example of issuers shifting attention towards Asia.