Slaughter and May, working closely with Treasury Legal Advisers, advised Her Majesty’s Treasury in connection with its review, announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in June, of the case for transferring certain poorly performing and high risk assets of the Royal Bank of Scotland group (RBS) to a 'bad bank'.

The results of the review were announced on 1 November 2013 and will involve RBS creating an internal 'bad bank' to wind down its poorly performing and high risk assets, which will be owned and funded by RBS.

Shearman & Sterling represented RBC Capital Markets, LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, as joint bookrunning managers, and HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., AltaCorp Capital (USA) Inc. and CIBC World Markets Corp., as co-managers, in connection with a Rule 144A/Regulation S add-on offering of $150 million aggregate principal amount of 7.50% senior notes due 2020 by Calfrac Holdings LP.

The Firm acted as U.S. counsel for the underwriters, led by BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets, UBS Investment Bank and Citigroup, in a secondary offering by certain shareholders of BRP Inc. (“BRP”), including affiliates of Bain Capital.  The shares were offered publicly in Canada and in the United States in reliance on Rule 144A.

Davis Polk advised Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC as joint book-running managers in connection with the $151.2 million public offering of common stock by Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and certain of its selling stockholders. The common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "PTLA." 

Davis Polk advised Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Allen & Company LLC and Barclays Capital, Inc.

Davis Polk advised Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC as the joint book runners on a $258.7 million SEC-registered offering of 51,750,000 shares of common stock of Molycorp, Inc. (Molycorp).

Davis Polk advised Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC as joint book-running managers on the SEC-registered offering by Altera Corporation of $600 million of its 2.5% senior notes due 2018 and $400 million of its 4.1% senior notes due 2023. 

Simmons & Simmons is advising HSBC Bank plc (“HSBC”) and Numis Securities Limited (“Numis”) as joint bookrunners on a £25.6m placing of shares in Chime Communications PLC (“Chime”), the international communications and sports marketing group, as part of the funding for its proposed £43.7m acquisition of Just Marketing, Inc., a global marketing firm focused on motorsports.

Simmons & Simmons is also advising HSBC in respect of its role as sponsor to Chime on both the placing and the acquisition.

Hong Kong: Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised Haitong International Finance Holdings Limited, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Haitong Securities Co., Ltd. (Haitong Securities), on its issue of US$900 million 3.95% Reg S credit-enhanced bonds due 2018. This is the first time that Haitong Securities has tapped the international US dollar market and is the second-largest credit-enhanced offering to date. The notes included credit enhancement from Bank of China Singapore in addition to a keepwell deed from Haitong Securities.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Baker & McKenzie has recently acted as Ukrainian law counsel to global aircraft leasing company ALAFCO Aviation Lease and Finance Company (K.S.C.) Closed (ALAFCO) on lease of two Being 737-900ER aircraft to Ukraine International Airlines.

The Baker & McKenzie team included associate Victoria Ischenko and was led by partner Ihor Olekhov and managing partner Serhiy Chorny.