Leading international legal practice, Norton Rose has advised Santander, one of the world’s largest banks, on the disposal of its UK co-branded store card business to SAV Credit, an independent credit card provider owned by US hedge fund Varde Partners.

Santander’s UK store card business has approximately 3.5 million customer accounts and £1 billion in receivables and provides co-branded store cards for retailers such as Debenhams, House of Fraser, Arcadia (which includes Topman and Topshop) and Laura Ashley.

International legal practice Norton Rose has advised UniCredit and Banca IMI on a €90 million financing to Pastificio Rana S.p.A.

Norton Rose advised Standard Chartered Bank as coordinating bank and other lenders on the USD1.85 billion bridge financing to SapuraKencana Drilling Pte. Ltd. as part of the USD2.9 billion acquisition comprising of both debt and equity elements by SapuraKencana of the Seadrill tender rig business involving 18 offshore rigs in total.

Herbert Smith Freehills has acted as the international legal counsel for Goldman Sachs on its equity investment of US$110 million in Den Networks Ltd ("Den Networks"), an Indian cable TV distribution company.

The Eversheds Dutch and UK Banking & Finance teams assisted HSBC Bank plc, acting through its Dutch branch office in Amsterdam, in negotiating a revolving credit facilities agreement for the amount of USD 75,000,000 (with an accordion option) with AVG Technologies N.V. and its material subsidiaries. The security package in favour of HSBC Corporate Trustee Company (UK) Limited, acting as security agent, relates to assets located in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America, Czech Republic and Cyprus.

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Citibank N.A., Sydney Branch, on the financing of QIC Global Infrastructure’s $400.6 million acquisition of Epic Energy South Australia Pty Ltd (Epic SA), which owns the Moomba to Adelaide Pipeline System (MAPS) and the South East Pipeline System (SEPS).  Completion of the transaction occurred on 1 May 2013.

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Macquarie Capital (Australia) Limited (Macquarie) in relation to its role as sole bookrunner, lead manager and underwriter for Mirvac Group’s (Mirvac) A$400 million fully underwritten institutional placement, announced on Friday, 10 May 2013. Mirvac has also announced an intention to launch a non-underwritten security purchase plan for up to $15,000 per eligible securityholder. The proceeds from the issue will be used to fund Mirvac’s acquisition of a select portfolio of office assets from GE Real Estate Investments Australia.

Allen & Overy LLP advised finance investor European Capital Service Ltd. (European Capital), a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Capital, Ltd., on the sale of its shares in Metall Technologie Holding Group (MTH). The purchaser is LOI Thermprocess GmbH, a subsidiary of Italy-based Tenova S.p.A. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
  

Clifford Chance advised a syndicate of nine national and international banks in relation to a structured corporate financing to Stadtwerke Düsseldorf in an amount of EUR 650 million. The credit facilities with a term of five years serve to finance the construction of the new power plant "Fortuna" as well as other investments in the renewable energy sector and the distribution facilities.

Clifford Chance advised a consortium of banks led by Portigon AG on the restructuring of Kruse Group, based in Balve (North Rhine-Westphalia), and the subsequent sale of the loan receivables to Stockmeier Group.