The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has advised a banking consortium led by Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg as mandated lead arrangers on the comprehensive refinancing of the QSIL Group.

Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Langewiesen, Thuringia, QSIL Group is a leading producer and manufacturer of products made of pure quartz glass such as pipes, cylinders and tailor-made glass products with production units in Germany and The Netherlands and a distribution network in the USA.

Leading commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has advised long-standing client Lloyds Bank on a £30 million refinancing deal with Elite Group, a provider of unified communications, cloud and IT services.

Elite, headquartered in Chorley with additional offices in Staffordshire and London, was established in 2000 and has worked with Lloyds for over 10 years.

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised CMB Financial Leasing Co., Ltd (“CMBFL”) on a US$180.4m sale and leaseback transaction with Star Bulk Carriers Corp (“Star Bulk”), a Nasdaq-listed global shipping company providing worldwide seaborne transportation of dry bulk cargoes.

McCann FitzGerald has advised ORIX Corporation on the Irish aspects of its acquisition, through Irish-based group company, ORIX Aviation Systems Limited, of a 30% shareholding in Avolon Holdings Limited, a leading global aircraft leasing company located in Ireland.

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised Hellenic Bank Public Company Limited (“Hellenic Bank”) in relation to a US$50m term facility provided to the First Ship Lease Trust (“FSL”) for the partial refinancing of an originally US$479.5m term facility which was entered into in 2011 and on which WFW also acted as the lender’s counsel.

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised ING Bank, London Branch (“ING”) in connection with a US$87m increase to a US$131m loan facility originally granted to Latsco Shipping Ltd (“Latsco”) to finance the construction of five new high-spec MR product tankers. The increase has been used to up the number of modern tankers being financed to nine, the last of which was financed in May 2018.

International law firm Clifford Chance has advised a consortium of banks comprising Commerzbank, HSBC, Mizuho und Société Générale on the establishment of a debt issuance programme and the following issuance of a 500 million Euro debut bond by HOCHTIEF Aktiengesellschaft.

The bond with seven years term has a coupon of 1.750 per cent.

HOCHTIEF experienced broad investor interest resulting in an oversubscription of the order book of 2.6 times.

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance advised the joint sponsors and underwriters including China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and Goldman Sachs on China Tower Corporation Limited's US$6.9 billion (HK$54.3 billion) initial public offering (IPO) and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). China Tower is the world's largest telecommunications tower infrastructure service provider and this offering is the world's largest IPO in two years.

DLA Piper represented Grupo Financiero Interacciones, S.A. de C.V. and its subsidiaries in a merger with Grupo Financiero Banorte, S.A.B. de C.V., a Mexican banking and financial services holding company.

As a result of the merger, Banorte became the second-largest financial group in Mexico in terms of total assets. The transaction was valued at MX$26.5 billion and was comprised of cash and stock.