Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff and China’s Premier Li Keqiang were present earlier this week in Brasilia to witness the signing of several key transactions involving investments by the Chinese SOEs in several sectors, including one in which Shearman & Sterling represented the Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. (“BoCom”), a Chinese joint stock company listed on HKEx, in its acquisition of 80% of the total outstanding shares of Brazil’s Banco BBM S.A. (“BBM Bank”).

Slaughter and May advised Ahli United Bank B.S.C. (AUB), a leading bank based in Bahrain with operations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Iraq, Oman, Libya and the UK, on the issue of US$400 million 6.875% Perpetual Tier 1 Capital Securities. This is the first issuance of Basel III-compliant Tier 1 securities in Bahrain.

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Financing: Ed Fife (partner), Edward Comber (associate), Christel Kayibi (associate); Tax: Gareth Miles (partner), Stefan Farahani (associate).

CHSH Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati has advised the IMMOFINANZ Group in connection with financing of EUR 300 million for a prime Austrian real estate portfolio. The deal is one of the biggest real estate financing transactions in Austria in recent years.

Ashurst has advised Mitsui & Co., Ltd (Mitsui) on its subscription of up to 20% (with an option to increase to 30%) of shares in Australian-based investment fund manager, Westbourne Credit Management Limited (WCML).

Mitsui is partnering with WCML to expand its overseas investment fund management business to key Asian clients by leveraging Mitsui's strong reputation in the Asia-Pacific region and WCML's expertise in the infrastructure fund business. The agreements were signed on 30 April 2015.

Linklaters has advised Unicreditbank AG’s with its HypoVereinsbank brand on the sale of its 7.09 million shares in Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG. The divestment was implemented by the Berenberg Bank as sole global coordinator in an international placement with institutional investors by means of an accelerated bookbuilding process. Due to the strong demand the entire share block could be successfully placed.

Within the framework of the US program in which it participated voluntarily, a Zurich based private bank was the third Swiss bank to reach a non-prosecution agreement with the US Justice Department. The bank agreed to pay USD 5.4 mio and to further cooperate with US authorities. In return, the US Department of Justice will abstain from criminal prosecution. The fine amounts to 2.2 percent of the total assets held by the bank's US clients.

Simmons & Simmons is advising J.P. Morgan Securities plc (“J.P. Morgan Cazenove”) and Peel Hunt LLP (“Peel Hunt”) as joint sponsors and joint bookrunners on a £275m Placing and Open Offer by Circassia Pharmaceuticals plc (“Circassia”).

Circassia, the speciality biopharmaceutical company, announced on 15 May 2015 a Placing and Open Offer to raise approximately £275m through the issue of 95,469,537 new ordinary shares, representing 50.4% of its existing issued share capital.

Caixabank absorbs Barclays and public deed is registered with commercial registry

Caixabank, S.A. and Barclays Bank, S.A.U. have completed their merger process after obtaining the required regulatory authorizations and registering the public deed of the merger with the commercial registry.

The transaction was closed at the start of the year when Caixabank acquired Barclays and its retail banking business in Spain for €800 million.

Windeln.de AG, online retailer of baby and toddler products, has gone public. On the basis of the issue price for the shares, the offering volume amounted to around 211 million EUR. This corresponds to a rating of almost 500 million EUR for the just under five year old company.

Overall, around 11.4 million shares were placed, 5.4 million of those are newly issued shares from a capital increase, whereas approximately 4.5 million existing shares are from the holdings selling shareholders and approximately 1.5 million shares are connected with an over-allotment.

Clayton Utz has advised Macquarie Capital (Australia) Limited on GUD Holdings Limited's A$79.3 million placement to sophisticated and institutional investors. The transaction was announced to the ASX on 12 May 2015.

Corporate partner Brendan Groves led the Clayton Utz team, which includes senior associate Warrick Louey and lawyer Kate Allison.