White & Case and Clifford Chance (CC) have landed the advisory mandates on Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's (ICBC) $770m (£635m) acquisition of a majority stake in South Africa's Standard Bank.

The deal, which closed yesterday (29 January), was billed by one lawyer involved in the transaction as a joint venture between the largest banks in Asia and Africa.

White & Case advised ICBC, fielding a multi-office team for the deal led by New York-based relationship partner Francis Zou and London Philip Broke.

Additional partner-level support came from Stuart Willey, Ingrid York, Stephen Ravenscroft and Nicholas Greenacre in London, Brussels partner Mark Powell, Ernie Patrikis in New York, Richard Burke in Washington DC and Hong Kong local partner Anthony Vasey.

"In recent months we've seen both the UK Prime Minister and Chancellor, as well as the Mayor of London, championing trade with China and this is very much a 'London is open for business with China' deal," commented Broke.

"It demonstrates the strength of London as a global hub for finance and business and the primacy of English law in significant cross-border transactions of this nature."

Chinese firm Hylands provided additional support to ICBC on Chinese law matters.

Meanwhile, CC advised Standard, with City-based corporate partner Alex Erasmus leading a team in London, New York, China and Singapore. Other CC lawyers working on the mandate were corporate partner Narind Singh, regulatory partner Simon Crown and Jonathan Elman on tax matters.

CC previously acted for Standard Bank on its acquisition of a 37% stake in Troika Dialog in 2009, and the subsequent sale to Sberbank two years later. The magic circle firm has also acted on various other corporate and restructuring mandates for the bank in Europe in the last four years, Erasmus told Legal Week.

Standard, which received its UK banking licence in 1992, works in investment banking and corporate lending, in addition to their core commodities, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit and equity trading divisions.

In 2012, White & Case acted for Standard on a $765m (£464m) bridge financing and guarantee facility for Shoreline Natural Resources Limited ("SNR") on a number of Nigeria pipeline interests.

Either side of that transaction, White & Case acted for ICBC on its landmark deal to acquire a controlling stake in The Bank of East Asia National Association, and last April's purchase of a 20% stake in Taiwanese bank SinoPac for $670m (£406m).

The deal is conditional on securing the necessary approvals from the relevant authorities, including the UK's Prudential Regulation Authority.