Ashurst is advising life and pensions consolidator Chesnara plc, owner of Countrywide Assured, on its placing and open offer to raise approximately £70 million to part-finance the proposed €160 million acquisition of Legal & General Nederland Levensverzekering Maatschappij N.V ("Legal & General Nederland") by Chesnara Holdings B.V. The balance of the consideration is to be satisfied by new Chesnara Group debt facilities totalling £100.2 million, on which Ashurst has also advised, as well as from existing cash resources.

Herbert Smith Freehills is delighted to be advising Centuria Capital Group (Centuria) on its A$217 million acquisition of the majority of 360 Capital Group’s (TGP) real estate management platform.

The firm is also advising Centuria on its associated A$150 million fully underwritten capital raising, which comprises an innovative conditional 1 for 1 rights offer of new stapled securities, a placement  to institutional investors and a further conditional placement to institutional investors subject to Centuria securityholder approval.

Slaughter and May, working as part of an integrated team with Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, advised INOVYN Finance plc on the repricing of its existing term facilities under its Senior Secured Credit Agreement. Amendments to the agreement, among other things, decreased the interest rates applicable to outstanding loan borrowings and modified amortisation instalments.

Contacts

Financing: Caroline Phillips (Partner), James Costi (Associate), Alexander Short (Associate)

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised leading non-bank lender Pepper Group Limited (ASX:PEP) on completing its third and final whole loan sale for 2016, selling a A$200 million portfolio of residential mortgage loans.

This transaction brings Pepper’s total whole loan sales for 2016 to A$1 billion, following earlier whole loan sales this year worth A$400m each.

The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by partner Mark Currell, who was supported by senior associate Jacob Kahwaji.

The Freshfields team was led by US Regional Managing Partner, Peter Lyons

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (‘Freshfields’) has advised London Stock Exchange Group plc (‘LSEG’) on its acquisition of Mergent, Inc. (‘Mergent’), a South Carolina-based provider of business and financial data and analytics on public and private companies across the globe. The transaction is expected to close by January 31, 2017.

Dentons has advised insolvent Berlin FinTech startup Cookies LABS on its sale to Klarna, a leading global payment service provider. As a consequence of disagreements within the management, Cookies LABS declared insolvency in October 2016. As part of the deal, Klarna assumed all debts of the company and all jobs were saved.

Ashurst is advising Citigroup in relation to the £221.5 million recommended takeover of Brammer plc by AI Robin Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of funds managed by Advent International Corporation.

Advent International is a global private equity investor. The firm has invested in more than 315 private equity transactions in 40 countries. As of 30 June 2016, it had US$40 billion in assets under management.

Citigroup is acting as financial adviser to AI Robin Limited in relation to the offer.

London – Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that it has advised HSBC, Lloyds and ING in relation to a new revolving credit facility which will replace Brammer plc’s existing financing upon Advent International acquiring the company.

The proposed acquisition of the company, announced today, by Advent International will proceed via a scheme of arrangement.

Brammer is a London-listed supplier of maintenance, repair, and operations products serving more than 100,000 clients in a wide range of manufacturing sectors across Europe.

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised the co-ordinating committee of secured lenders on the restructuring of EnQuest PLC, the largest independent UK oil producer in the North Sea, that became effective on 21 November 2016.  

Linklaters has advised the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group on the issuance of its ground-breaking Forest Bond, a first-of-its-kind bond that gives investors the option of receiving their interest payment in either cash or carbon credits. The 5-yr bond raised US$152m and will support IFC’s private sector lending and help to prevent deforestation in developing countries by supporting the price of voluntary carbon credits.