International law firm Bird & Bird's international corporate team has advised major European printing group, Elcograf S.p.A on the acquisition of Clays, the UK's leading monochrome book production and distribution business, from St Ives plc. Clays is a book production company that was founded more than 200 years ago and is based in Suffolk, England. Clays has printed many of the UK's best loved books, including bestsellers by the likes of J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown.

Charles Russell Speechlys has advised the Civica Group (an investee company of Partners Group) on the acquisition of payment systems specialist, Nationwide Retail Systems Limited (NRS).

Greenberg Traurig Germany advised PLDT Inc., the largest telecommunications company in the Philippines (PLDT), on its participation in the share buyback programme of Rocket Internet SE (Rocket Internet). PLDT's subsidiary PLDT Online Investments Pte Ltd. (PLDT Online) was an anchor participant in the programme and offered 6.8 million shares to Rocket Internet. This corresponds to about 67 percent of PLDT Online’s stake in Rocket Internet. The offer was accepted by Rocket Internet at a purchase price of 24 Euro per share.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (‘Freshfields’) has advised Liberty Global plc, the world’s largest international TV and broadband company, on the sale of its operations in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic to Vodafone for a total enterprise value of approximately €19bn.

UK-based infrastructure and cloud specialist Union Solutions has been acquired by leading managed IT services provider Claranet.

Union represents the latest in a string of technology businesses to be added to the Claranet Group in recent years and will enable Claranet to expand its customer base and service capabilities.

Slaughter and May is advising Vodafone Group Plc (Vodafone) on the proposed acquisition of certain operations of Liberty Global (Liberty). Vodafone has agreed to acquire Unitymedia GmbH in Germany and Liberty Global’s operations (excluding its “Direct Home” business) in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania, for a total enterprise value of €18.4 billion. This is expected to comprise approximately  €10.8 billion of cash consideration paid to Liberty Global and €7.6 billion of acquired existing Liberty debt, subject to completion adjustments.

Slaughter and May is advising Vodafone Group Plc (Vodafone) on the proposed acquisition of certain operations of Liberty Global (Liberty). Vodafone has agreed to acquire Unitymedia GmbH in Germany and Liberty Global’s operations (excluding its “Direct Home” business) in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania, for a total enterprise value of €18.4 billion. This is expected to comprise approximately  €10.8 billion of cash consideration paid to Liberty Global and €7.6 billion of acquired existing Liberty debt, subject to completion adjustments.

King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) advises Chinese technology group Shenzhen Kaizhong Precision Technology Co Ltd. (Kaizhong) on the acquisition of smk systeme metall kunststoff GmbH & Co. KG (smk).

Allgon AB (publ) has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire all shares in Tele-Radio International Holding AB (Tele Radio). The purchase price amounts to SEK 350 million on a debt and cash free basis with a possible additional purchase price of up to a maximum of SEK 50 million.

Allgon is a Swedish company group that develops and delivers wireless communication solutions for industrial and robust environments in the global market.

With a team led by Stuttgart-based partner Dr. Hermann Ali Hinderer, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advised a private equity fund advised by CGS Management AG on the acquisition of a majority stake in InnoLas Solutions GmbH. Jointly with previous owner Richard Grundmüller, who remains a shareholder in the company, CGS intends to develop InnoLas Solutions GmbH into a global laser machine manufacturer for micromachining as part of a buy and build strategy.