Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Linklaters have taken the lead on the $3.2bn (£2.1bn) initial public offering (IPO) of Malaysian palm oil group Felda Global Ventures, which is set to become the largest listing in Asia since the start of 2012.

US firm Cleary is advising the state-owned company, which is listing on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange.

Felda – an arm of the Federal Land Development Authority, a government agency that provides land to rural poor – is the third-largest palm oil plantation operator in the world.

The company also used two Malaysian law firms as local counsel, with Albar & Partners and Azmi & Associates both working on the IPO.

Linklaters, meanwhile, is advising the underwriters, which included CIMB, Maybank, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan.

The magic circle firm fielded a team under Singapore-based Kevin Wong, who was assisted by US-qualified capital markets partner Arun Balasubramanian and of counsel Rob Rosen.

Wong commented: "The Felda IPO is a landmark transaction that has cemented Malaysia's status as Asia's top IPO destination for 2012. This is a testament to both the quality of companies being listed and the resilience of the Malaysian equity market."