Fibre broadband provider Gigaclear has been awarded a €25 million committed debt facility from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the largest loan of its kind awarded to a British company.

Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co (WLG) advised Gigaclear on the terms of the EIB loan, negotiating the agreement and related documents alongside Brian Robertson of Cameron Barney, Gigaclear's corporate finance adviser.

Dechert LLP advised Orange, a leading international telecom group, in connection with the signing of a share purchase agreement relating to the acquisition of 100% of Airtel’s subsidiaries in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone. In its press release, Orange stated that these acquisitions provided a clear illustration of the group’s international development strategy, which places a priority on accelerating growth in high-potential, emerging markets where the group is not already present.

Davis Polk is advising ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC. (“ChipMOS Taiwan”) in connection with its proposed merger with its parent company, ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Bermuda) LTD. (“ChipMOS Bermuda”), in which ChipMOS Taiwan will become the surviving company. Under the merger agreement, each outstanding ChipMOS Bermuda share will be converted in the merger into $3.71 in cash, without interest, and 0.9355 American Depository Shares, representing 18.71 shares of ChipMOS Taiwan.

Dentons has advised Hungary’s Wallis Group and Praktiker’s managing director Karl-Heinz Keth in their respective purchase of the Hungarian retail operations and operating company of Praktiker, one of the leading DIY and home improvement store chains in Hungary. The existing Praktiker operation in Hungary, with 19 locations and 1,100 employees, will continue to trade under the Praktiker brand.

A cross-border team from leading international law firm Clifford Chance is advising Nikon Corporation on its recommended all cash offer to acquire London listed Optos plc, a leading retinal imaging company domiciled in Scotland. The offer values Optos at approximately GBP 259 million. The proposed acquisition of Optos is an important step in Nikon's implementation of its strategic initiative focused on driving sustainable long term growth that was announced in its June 2014 Medium-Term Management Plan Transform to Grow.

Fieldfisher to advise the UK's independent regulator of premium rate telephone services following a competitive tender process.

European law firm Fieldfisher has been appointed as the principal provider of legal services to PhonepayPlus.

On January 19, 2016 WISeKey International Holding AG signed a CHF 60 million committed share subscription facility with a consortium of international institutional investors led by GEM Global Yield Fund LLC SCS, a fund of Global Emerging Markets.

The share subscription facility will be effective as of the date of the listing of WISeKey on the SIX Swiss Exchange, which WIseKey expects in Q1 2016.

The M&A team at Olswang has advised Munich-based C3 (Creative Code & Content) on the acquisition of London-based Seven Publishing.

The deal sees Seven, an award-winning international content marketing agency, join forces with C3, ranked the most creative marketing agency in Germany for the fourth year running, to form an international strategic alliance with a client portfolio ranging from Sainsbury’s to Porsche and combined annual turnover of almost €100 million.

In 2015 we successfully defended Reuters, the international news and information service, in a €60 million action in the Cyprus courts filed by a Cyprus company called Famanet Limited, which was the former distributor of services provided by Telerate, a company that Reuters acquired in 2005.

King & Wood Mallesons has advised Fiducia & GAD IT AG (Fiducia & GAD) on the sale of another participation of ELAXY Group to Consileon Business Consultancy GmbH (Consileon) and Ajco Solutions GmbH (Ajco).

From 31 January 2015, 100 percent of shares in ELAXY Format GmbH (ELAXY Format) will go over to Consileon and Ajco.