Slaughter and May advised Union Bancaire Privée, UBP SA (UBP) on the corporate and regulatory aspects of its acquisition of the Hong Kong banking and wealth management business of Coutts & Co. AG (Coutts) from The Royal Bank of Scotland plc.

The acquisition involved an asset purchase of Coutts’ Hong Kong business. In order to take over Coutts’ banking business in Hong Kong, UBP obtained a banking licence from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and a registered institution licence from the Securities and Futures Commission.

White & Case LLP has advised Eurazeo, one of the leading listed investment companies in Europe, on its entry into exclusive negotiations to acquire from Mondelez International more than ten iconic European chocolate and confectionery brands including Poulain, Carambar, Krema, La Pie Qui Chante and Terry’s as well as the licences of Pastilles Vichy, Rochers Suchard and Malabar.

General Electric (GE) is selling off its financial operations in German and France. The French Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel will be taking over GE’s Equipment Financing and Factoring divisions. The purchase agreement was signed on 31 March. Closing of the transaction is still subject to approval of the French and German financial supervisory authorities and European banking regulators.

Catalana Occidente Group, a leading insurance company in Spain, has acquired the insurance and funeral business of Previsora Bilbaína Group, a Basque company specializing in funeral insurance.

The transaction was closed at €125 million, €92 million linked to the insurance business and insurance mediation, and €33 million to the funeral business.  The transaction is subject to authorization by the competition authorities and the Directorate General of Insurance.

Städtisches Klinikum München (StKM) has sold the operations of Blutspendedienst München (BSD) to Blutspendedienst des Bayerischen Roten Kreuzes gGmbH (BSD-BRK) and agreed on a long-term supply contract in connection with this transaction. On December 17, 2015, after approval by the Munich city council and the supervisory board of BSD-BRK, the parties had signed the agreements on the transaction. After clearance by the antitrust authorities the transaction was closed on April 1st.

International law firm Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised mid-market investor Aurelius Group (“Aurelius”) on the successful completion of its cross-border acquisition of Colt Group S.A.’s (“Colt”) virtualised cloud computing and managed hosting services business, Colt Managed Cloud (“CMC”).

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised CGN of China on the completion of its US$2.3 billion acquisition of the energy assets of Edra Global Energy Berhad.

The assets include interests in 13 power plants in Malaysia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, representing a total generating capacity of over 6,620MW.

The transaction closed on 23 March, only four months after the announcement of the deal.

The completion of this US$2.3 billion transaction represents:

We act as lead counsel to Gasum and its subsidiary Skangas in their acquisition of the Risavika LNG production plant in Norway from Lyse Group. 

Wierzbowski Eversheds advised Centerscape group in the acquisition of commercial real estate portfolio located in Chorzow, Prudnik, Rawa Mazowiecka and Trzcianka. The properties included in the acquired portfolio are rented by, among others, Jeronimo Martins Poland and Pepco. Lawyers responsible for handling these transactions were: Patryk Galicki, attorney at law, head of the practice of real estate law and Kamil Lewandowski, a lawyer from the same team.

Global law firm DLA Piper has advised Investa Commercial Property Fund on the acquisition of a 75 per cent interest in Sydney's landmark 420 George Street, to the value of AU$450 million.

The 31-level commercial property comprises over 37,000sqm of premium office space in the heart of Sydney's CBD, and this transaction represents one of Sydney's largest office tower purchases.