Tianan Property Insurance Co., Ltd. recently acquired the land use right of a plot within Shanghai Expo Park after paying RMB1.2bn of land transfer fees. The plot is located in a world-class commercial community housing headquarters of renowned international companies and serving functions for high-end business affairs, conventions and exhibitions with supporting functions for consumption, leisure and entertainment and hotels.

DWF advised leading real estate investment trust (REIT) NewRiver Retail Limited on six key transactions that saw the business invest £18.26 million and dispose of three retail assets totalling £5.53 million.

The AIM listed REIT, has acquired the Lower Audley Street Retail Park in Blackburn from a private property company for a total of £14.6 million; the freehold interest of a 10,591 sq. ft. retail unit, let to Staples, on Sealand Road in Chester; and Felixstowe’s only retail warehouse unit for £1.56 million.

DLA Piper represented MassDevelopment, Massachusetts’s economic development agency, and MassDevelopment/Saltonstall Building Redevelopment Corp.in the US$280 million ground lease sale of the former Saltonstall Building, located at 100 Cambridge Street, from Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, an SEC Registered Investment Adviser.

Ashurst advised IVG Institutional Funds GmbH on the sale of a portfolio consisting of two separate funds to an investment fund of Ares Management, L.P. group. The portfolio consists of eight properties located in Germany, UK, the Netherlands, France, Poland and Sweden and provides for approx. 53,000 sqm lettable space. According to media reports the deal, valued at over €100 million, is one of the first transactions since the financial crisis of a pan-European office portfolio.

Slaughter and May is advising Derwent London on the letting of the ninth and tenth floors at 1 Stephen Street, London W1 to AnaCap Financial Partners LLP (AnaCap), a private equity firm. AnaCap will take a 10-year lease of approximately 16,150 sq. ft. at an initial rent in excess of £80 per sq. ft., equivalent to approximately £1.3 million per annum.

Clifford Chance advised Union Investment Real Estate GmbH on the sale of the Laim 290 office building in Munich to an institutional investor. Union Investment is selling the property from its open-ended UniImmo: Deutschland fund.

The property, located on the busy Landsberger Strasse in Munich, is a seven-storey office and commercial building with 10,381 square metres of rental space.

The Clifford Chance team comprised partner Cornelia Thaler and senior associate Dennis Blechinger (both Real Estate, Frankfurt).

Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co's Investment Funds team has advised Empiric Student Property Plc (Empiric) on an £85 million fund raising, exceeding its target of approximately £75 million.

The deal marked the second tranche offering under Empiric's £300 million share issuance programme launched in October last year.

Investment funds partner John Reed led on the deal with support from associate Emily Troubridge.

White & Case LLP has advised Klépierre, one of the major European players in the retail property market, on its €375 million acquisition of the Plenilunio shopping center in Madrid from an entity 100 percent indirectly owned by Orion European Real Estate Fund III C.V.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of March 2015 under the SOCIMI regime. At 70,000 square metres, Plenilunio is one of the major shopping centers in Madrid, welcoming 10.5 million visitors annually.

The Manchester office of Irwin Mitchell has advised Preston-based Maple Grove Developments on the pre-sale of a 32,000 sq ft office in Blackburn’s Cathedral Quarter to Legal & General Property for £9.1m.

The building at One Cathedral Square has been let to Blackburn with Darwen Council on a 25-year head lease.

The development at One Cathedral Square forms part of the first phase of the £25m Blackburn Cathedral Quarter scheme.

The Frasers Hospitality Group (“Frasers Hospitality”) instructed Watson Farley Williams (“WFW”) to advise on all legal and tax matters regarding its recent acquisition of the former regional finance office (Oberfinanzdirektion) at Rödingsmarkt in Hamburg, Germany. The historic building will be redeveloped into a five-star luxury hotel residence.