Reed Smith has advised KBC Bank on its sale and lease back of its London office at 111 Old Broad Street to China Construction Bank Group, deal value in excess of £110M. The property comprises approximately 123,000 sq. ft. arranged over eight floors.

The Reed Smith team, led by partner Graham Reid, advised on all aspects of the deal from the sale documents, through to the new leases as well as providing tax advice.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised on the initial public offering of GAME Digital plc (‘GAME’), the leading omni-channel specialist retailer of video games in the UK and Spain.

The offer price was set at 200 pence per Ordinary Share, giving GAME a total market capitalisation at the offer price of £340 million. The offer raised gross proceeds of approximately £121 million.

Watson, Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (“ABN AMRO”) in relation to the delivery to Eco Shipping Limited of Malta, of a 38,700dwt handysize open hatch box shaped dry-bulk vessel constructed at the Chinese shipyard Yangfang Group Co. Ltd. Upon delivery, the vessel has been named “Giulia I” and been registered under the Maltese flag.

Eco Shipping Limited of Malta is fully owned and controlled by Venice Shipping and Logistics S.p.A. (“VSL”).

Simpson Thacher represented the initial purchasers, led by joint book-running managers, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, in the sale of an aggregate principal amount of $350 million 5.000% Senior Notes due 2022 by Group 1 Automotive, Inc.

Global legal practice Norton Rose Fulbright has advised ING Bank Slaski S.A., Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci Bank Polski S.A. and Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking as global banking coordinators of a consortium of more than 20 financial institutions on the PLN 3 billion (approximately £580 million) facilities made available to Cyfrowy Polsat S.A., a leading Polish media company providing direct to home subscription satellite television services.

Davis Polk advised Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC as joint book-running managers in connection with an SEC-registered offering by NetApp, Inc. of $500 million aggregate principal amount of 3.375% notes due 2021. 

NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that deliver outstanding cost efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs. 

Clifford Chance, as drafting counsel, advises Crédit Foncier, as Lead Arranger, on the issuance of French residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issued by FCT CFHL-1 2014, for an amount just below €1bn

DLA Piper advised Royal Bank of Scotland in its agreement to sell ALM Media, owned by RBS and Apax Partners, to Wasserstein & Co.

ALM, based in New York, has a portfolio of more than 350 print and legal and publications, including The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, New York Law Journal, and Law.com.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014.

The DLA Piper team was led by Sidney Burke in New York, with Sarah Coucher and Joseph McHale in London.

Slaughter and May advised Standard Chartered PLC on its issue of £900 million 5.125% Dated Subordinated Notes due 2034 under its US$57.5 billion Debt Issuance Programme. Barclays, Credit Suisse, Lloyds Bank and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint lead managers.

CONTACTS

Corporate and Financing: Nilufer von Bismarck (partner), Andrew Chaplin (associate)

A Dentons team led by Tim Haney and including Lucas Tomei and Dan Shea acted as counsel for the underwriters in the successful completion of Keyera Corp.’s public offering of 3,750,000 common shares, as well as the sale of an additional 562,500 common shares pursuant to the over-allotment option exercised by the underwriters in connection with the public offering.

The total number of common shares sold by Keyera in the public offering was 4,312,500 and these were priced at $73.75 per common share for gross total proceeds of approximately CA$318 million.