Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Allen & Overy (A&O) have taken lead roles on South Korean cable television operator CJ HelloVision's KRW293bn (£170m) initial public offering (IPO) – the Korea Exchange's largest listing in almost 18 months.

Cleary acted for CJ HelloVision on the international tranche of the listing, with a team of four led by corporate partner Yong Lee in Seoul alongside associates in Hong Kong and New York. 

A&O took a role for the underwriters, with the magic circle firm team led by Hong Kong capital markets partner David Johnson. JP Morgan, Daewoo Securities and HI Investment & Securities served as the joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, while IBK Securities served as co-lead manager.

The Korean law firms advising on local aspects of the deal were Kim & Chang for the issuer and Bae Kim & Lee for the banks. Seoul-based attorney Chang Hyeon Ko led the Kim & Chang team whilst Mi Eun Roh took the leadrole for Bae Kim.

The listing comes amid a dearth of IPOs in Korea this year, as well as a drop-off in capital markets activity in Asia's other key finance centres such as Hong Kong and Singapore. According to Reuters, excluding the CJ HelloVision listing, Korean companies have raised just $560m this year, compared with $2.3bn in 2011.

"Capital markets and outbound investment work are slower than what they used to be because of unfavourable global economic conditions, but we are still fairly busy," said Cleary's Lee.

Cleary, which opened in Seoul last month, currently has five Korean lawyers on the ground, with a focus on capital markets, outbound M&A and litigation work.