King & Wood Mallesons advised the sole sponsor and the underwriters as the Hong Kong counsel on the initial public offering (IPO) of Zhicheng Technology Group Ltd. (Zhicheng Technology, Stock Code: 8511) on the GEM of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong by way of share offer.

Listed on 20 April 2018, the IPO comprised a total of 100 million shares issued and sold. Priced at HK$0.65 per share, the gross proceeds from the offering was approximately HK$65 million.

Baker McKenzie has advised Crédit Agricole Payment Services (CAPS) in the context of a partnership with Wirecard, the European digital transaction and payment platform.

Thanks to this partnership, Crédit Agricole Payment Services, a specialist subsidiary of Crédit Agricole, will be able to expand its service offering internationally and rely on a wide range of means of payment accepted by the Wirecard platform in order to develop new payment solutions – in particular in terms of e-commerce – which will be available in 2019.

Osborne Clarke has advised Cenkos Securities plc and Numis Securities Limited on the successful £170 million cashbox placing for Breedon Group plc.

Breedon intends to use the net proceeds of the placing to part-fund the cash consideration of £455 million* payable in connection with the acquisition of Lagan Group (Holdings) Limited, a leading construction materials business based in Belfast.

AkzoNobel, a leading global paints and coatings company and major producer of specialty chemicals, announced the sale of 100% of its specialty chemicals business to The Carlyle Group and GIC for an enterprise value of €10.1 billion. Milbank is representing the lead arrangers and underwriters, including Barclays, HSBC, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, RBC, UBS and others in providing the debt financing to support Carlyle and GIC’s acquisition.

Weil advised Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) in connection with the sale of the core business of Raiffeisen Bank Polska S.A. (RBPL), a Polish subsidiary of RBI, to Bank BGZ BNP Paribas S.A. (BGZ BNP Paribas), a subsidiary of BNP Paribas SA (BNPP).

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Banca IMI S.p.A., as arranger, on the securitization of a portfolio of receivables arising out of fondiari mortgage loans, ipotecari mortgage loans and unsecured loans originated by Farbanca S.p.A., for a total nominal value of €460 million.

Three classes of notes were issued: €322 million senior notes fully subscribed by an institutional investor through a private placement, €46 million mezzanine notes and €96 million junior notes, each subscribed by the originator.

Davis Polk advised the joint bookrunners in connection with an offering by AEGON N.V. of $800 million aggregate principal amount of 5.50% fixed-to-floating subordinated notes due 2048, the first SEC-registered offering of subordinated notes structured to qualify as Tier 2 capital instruments under Solvency II.

Paul Hastings, a leading global law firm, announced today that the firm advised BNP Paribas and Nomura as joint bookrunners on Lotte Shopping’s KRW303.6 billion (US$285 million) exchangeable bonds, exchangeable into shares of Lotte Himart, the largest consumer electronics retailer in Korea and a majority-owned subsidiary of Lotte Shopping. Lotte Shopping is one of South Korea’s biggest retailers and a market leader in both department stores and discount stores.

Linklaters have advised as Saudi Arabia has expanded its $10billion international loan to raise $16billion, one of the largest financings in the Middle East to date. Linklaters and Zamakhchary & Co, Linklaters relationship firm in the Kingdom, advised the arrangers on the deal, which introduced a sharia compliant tranche alongside the conventional loan facility.
 
Omar El Sayed at Linklaters, said:

Mayer Brown JSM advised a consortium of joint lead managers on the first issuance of Eurobonds listed and traded on the regulated market of Frankfurt Stock Exchange and available for trading on the China Europe International Exchange by a PRC non-financial institution company.

The dual-tranche offering is Chengdu Xingcheng Investment Group Co., Ltd’s issuance of EUR 365 million 2.50% bonds due 2021 and EUR 135 million 2.95% bonds due 2023.