Slaughter May is advising global financial service specialists Corsair Capital and Centerbridge Partners, L.P. on aspects of a £600 million pre Initial Public Offering (IPO) investment into the Williams & Glyn's business which centres around 314 bank branches in the UK. The Williams & Glyn's business is wholly owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBSG) and RBSG committed to divest this business in connection with the European Commission's State aid approval on RBSG's restructuring.

Clifford Chance Hong Kong has advised Spain's largest bank, Banco Santander SA, on its acquisition of an 8% equity stake in China's second-largest urban commercial and retail lender, Bank of Shanghai Co., from HSBC. The transaction, which is subject to approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission, also includes the signing of a cooperation agreement between Santander and Bank of Shanghai, and represents a total investment of €470 million.

Clyde & Co has advised Westhouse Holdings plc on a takeover offer from one of its strategic shareholders, Somers Limited, formerly Bermuda National Limited.

Westhouse is the parent company of Westhouse Securities Limited, an FCA-regulated stockbroking company with particular expertise in growth companies, mining, oil and gas, insurance, media and investment funds. Somers is an investment holding company specialising in the financial services sector with a capital base in excess of $200m and assets under administration of $6.5bn.

Ashurst advised an international banking consortium comprising Barclays Bank PLC (technical lead), Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft and HSBC Bank plc on the successful issuance of a €500 million bond by Erste Group Bank AG ("Erste Group"). The bond was issued unter Erste Group's newly established debt issuance programme for bonds ("Debt Issuance Programme") and placed with institutional investors.

Prior to this transaction Ashurst had acted for Barclays Bank PLC as arranger in relation to the establishment of the Debt Issuance Programme.

Linklaters advised the co-ordinating committee of the senior lenders led by Commerzbank on the financial restructuring of the fashion company BASLER. The company, which is based in Goldbach near Aschaffenburg, had been part of the portfolio of the private equity investor Triton for more than seven years and was, in the context of the restructuring, at first transferred to private equity investment funds held by the BASLER management.

Clifford Chance has advised Goldman Sachs International on the origination and securitisation of a €363,000,000 commercial real estate loan secured over a portfolio of shopping centres and retail parks in Italy.

The transaction represented the first Italian commercial mortgage backed securitisation since the financial crisis. The success of the transaction highlights the gradual re-emergence of the European CMBS market.

Ashurst advised an international banking consortium comprising Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank as well as DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main (technical lead) on the successful issuance of an environmental bond by NRW.BANK. The NRW.BANK Green Bond will serve to refinance environmentally-friendly water and energy projects in North Rhine-Westphalia. The bond matures on 28 November 2017, has a volume of €250 million and pays interest at a rate of 0.75 per cent per annum.

Osborne Clarke has represented the Financial Sponsors team at RBS on its acquisition financing of this key customer by Kester Capital. RBS has worked with Frontier for a long time and was a natural choice to support Kester and Frontier into this next phase for the business.

RBS provided term and ancillary facilities for the transaction. Commenting, Nick Evans, Director at RBS, said:

“We are very pleased to have been able to support this transaction and continue our relationship with Frontier, a strong local business that we have worked with since 1973.”

Pinsent Masons has advised Quam Capital and the Underwriters, on the HK$100 million (equivalent to approximately £7.9 million) placing of shares and listing of U Banquet Group Holding Limited (“U Banquet”) on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Prudential on its acquisition of 100 per cent of the equity of Express Life Insurance Company  in Ghana. The acquisition marks the entry of Prudential into the fast-growing but nascent African life insurance industry.

Founded in 2009, Express Life provides savings and protection products to thousands of Ghanaians. The acquisition is part of Prudential’s strategy of pursuing long-term opportunities in emerging markets with robust economic growth and an expanding middle class.