The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has advised LGT Group, the largest Private Banking and Asset Management group in the world to be owned by an entrepreneurial family, on the financing round in the aviation start-up Lilium GmbH. Other lenders include the Chinese internet company Tencent and the Atomico and Obvious Ventures technology funds. In total, Lilium was able to complete a second round of financing of US$ 90 million.

Wolf Theiss advised BGK (Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego) on the financing of OT Logistics' expansion in Croatia.

The PLN 125 million (EUR 30 million) BGK loan will be used to finance acquisition of Luka Rijeka d.d., the operator of the port in Croatia. The first tranche of the facility in the amount of PLN 46.6 million will be used to acquire an 11.75% stake of shares in the target company. Financing the foreign expansion of Polish companies is one of the strategic tasks of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego.

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Société Générale on the USD227m financing of the purchase of ten 46,000 dwt medium range tankers by Oman Shipping Company.

The Paris office of international law firm Clifford Chance has advised Deutsche Bank as sole lead manager and bookrunner on the tap issuance by the Gabonese Republic of its outstanding USD 500 million 6.95% bonds due 16 June 2025 for an amount of USD 200 million.

The proceeds of the issuance will be used to refinance the remainder of the Gabonese Republic's outstanding 8.20% bonds due December 2017. The transaction settled on 12 August 2017 and the bonds were offered and sold in reliance on Rule 144A and Regulation S and were admitted to trading on the Irish Stock Exchange.

Gernandt & Danielsson advises Holding Blanc Bleu 5 S.à r.l. (owned by funds advised by Orlando Management AG) and Petek GmbH in the sale of the Nordic Paper group to the Chinese paper manufacturer Anhui Shanying Paper.

Nordic Paper is a leading Swedish-based producer of speciality paper within the segments kraft and greaseproof paper.

Gernandt & Danielsson advises in the transaction with a team led by Partners Carl Westerberg, Bob Johanson and Corinne Ekman, and Associates Erik Svärd.

Slaughter and May has advised Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Limited, as the manager, in relation to the HK$432.6 million secondary placing and sale of shares in Meitu, Inc. The placing and sale of shares represents approximately 0.77% of the issued share capital of Meitu, Inc.

Meitu, Inc. is a global innovator in mobile video and photography, including themed photo and video apps, and is listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

Contacts
John Moore (partner), Frank Bi (counsel), Jianhao Zheng (associate)

Clifford Chance has advised an international banking syndicate on the financing of the acquisition of PlusServer GmbH, a provider of managed-hosting and managed-cloud solutions, by BC Partners. The seller of PlusServer GmbH is HOST Europe GmbH. The banking syndicate, consisting of Societe Generale, London Branch, UniCredit Bank AG, London Branch and IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, acted under a senior facilities agreement as arrangers of the acquisition financing.

HSH Nordbank AG financed the acquisition of four shopping centres in Germany for Madison International Realty (Madison) in joint venture with Redos group. Madison assumed the original financing, existing at the time of the acquisition of the Christie portfolio at the end of 2016, which is now refinanced by HSH Nordbank. The parties agreed to keep the terms of the financing confidential.

Dentons is pleased to have advised Metro Bank on providing £22 million in funding to real estate investment company Aprirose for its acquisition of a portfolio of 73 pubs from Mitchells & Butlers.

The pub portfolio purchased by Aprirose using the debt facility from Metro Bank includes 65 freehold and eight leasehold pubs across England, Scotland and Wales. The pubs will operate under a new pub company banner, Milton Pubs and Taverns, and will be managed by pub operator LT Management Services.

Taylor Wessing’s Dubai real estate team has advised Emirates REIT on the purchase of the European Business Centre in Dubai Investments Park (DIP) for AED 130 million.

Emirates REIT is the world’s largest Sharia compliant REIT.

Located in the heart of Dubai’s new industrial area, the European Business Centre is the latest addition to Emirate’s REIT’s portfolio that includes commercial and educational assets across Dubai. This acquisition takes the portfolio value over the AED 3 billion threshold.