Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee in Singapore recently acted as lead transaction counsel to PayPal on the US$125m investment round in Pine Labs, India's largest retail payment platform, together with Temasek, the sovereign investment fund of the Singapore government.

Transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD), which has its largest office in Newcastle, has advised IOTech Systems Limited (IOTech) on its seed capital raise with Dell Technologies Capital.

The seed funding, combined with R&D funding received from Innovate UK, will provide IOTech with around $2,5 million of investment to allow IOTech to accelerate the delivery of industrial IoT Edge Technology. IOTech is a global B2B software products company developing and marketing computing platforms and software products for the Industrial Internet of Things.

Charles Russell Speechlys has advised AIQ Limited, a special purpose vehicle with a focus on the development and establishment of new technology, on a placing of shares and an oversubscribed open offer (which was announced on 22nd May 2018). Admission to the London Stock Exchange Main Market and dealings commenced on 14th June 2018.

DLA Piper represented Authentic Brands Group, LLC (ABG) in their purchase of the US shoe and accessories company Nine West Holdings Inc. ABG's successful auction bid is valued over US$340 million in connection with Nine West's chapter 11 case in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Nine West's portfolio also includes such iconic brands as Anne Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt and Bandolino footwear and handbags.

Simpson Thacher represented GDS Holdings Limited (“GDS”) in connection with its offering of US$300 million aggregate principal amount of 2% Convertible Senior Notes due 2025 (the “Notes”). The offering was made pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S, and included the exercise in full of the option to purchase an additional US$50 million principal amount of the Notes granted by GDS. J.P. Morgan, RBC Capital Markets and Citigroup acted as representatives of the initial purchasers in the offering.

Fried Frank represented Ascential plc (“Ascential”) in its acquisition of global digital subscription business, WARC Limited (“WARC”). The acquisition, which is expected to complete on July 2, 2018, involved the entire share capital of WARC for an initial cash consideration of £19.5m, plus deferred consideration of £4.5m payable in 2018.
 
It has also been announced that WARC will join Cannes Lions' new digital offering, The Work, to form a scaled digital subscription product.