Following appointment to the Scottish panel in 2013, Shoosmiths real estate team is supporting Bellway Homes in its ambitious investment drive North of the Border, providing expert legal advice on both development acquisitions and plot sales.

Bellway recently announced plans to acquire more than 100 acres of land in Scotland during the coming 12 months, creating roughly 1250 new homes and Shoosmiths are delighted to be able to assist them in achieving this target.

Norton Rose Fulbright is acting for a consortium comprised of funds managed by AMP Capital and Infrastructure Capital Group (ICG) in its acquisition of Port Hedland International Airport.

The transaction documents, signed on September 15, included an agreement to enter into a 50 year long-term lease, pursuant to which the AMP and ICG consortium will acquire a 100 per cent interest in the Port Hedland International Airport from the Town of Port Hedland.

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Amundi Immobilier in connection with its acquisition of the €1 billion pan-European office building portfolio "Aqua" from Union Investment. This is one of the largest portfolio transactions of the year with the portfolio consisting of 17 properties located across six different countries (France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland). The assets cover 278,000 sqm and generate a total annual net operating income of approximately €60.2m. Completion is planned for the end of September.

The DLA Piper real estate team has completed an AU$124 million deal for Union Investment Real Estate (Union Investment), a German-based international real estate investor and a key client of DLA Piper's global real estate practice.

Union Investment has acquired the former Australian Red Cross building at 155 Clarence Street in Sydney. The building is the city's newest A-grade office tower having undergone a major redevelopment, completed earlier this year.

Trowers & Hamlins is pleased to have advised AXA's UK Long Lease Property Fund on the purchase and forward funding of John Lewis's customer delivery hub at Logic Leeds from Muse Developments for £6.2 million.  The deal represents one of the most significant investment deals in Yorkshire so far this year and set a record yield for prime, mid-size industrial property.

Olswang has advised Curzon Capital Partners IV (CCP IV), a vintage core plus style fund advised by Tristan Capital Partners, on the acquisition of the “Cordeliers” shopping centre in the heart of Poitiers, from a vehicle of Munich-based GLL Real Estate Partners. The 9,000 sq. m. shopping centre has national and international brands such as Zara, Mango, Fnac, Décimas and Nature & Découvertes as its anchor tenants.

The acquisition is CCP IV’s third investment in Europe.

Dentons advised Lenta, one of the biggest and dynamically developing chains of hypermarkets in Russia, on the purchase of land plots and real estate in Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Volgograd and Taganrog from the O'Key group of companies.

The team was led by Partner and Head of the St. Petersburg Real Estate Practice Karina Chichkanova, who oversaw the project including the drafting a total of 16 agreements with comprehensive due diligence in relation to the purchase of land and real estate.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is advising Biostime International Holdings Limited (Biostime) as international and Hong Kong counsel on its leveraged acquisition of leading Australian vitamins and health supplements brand, Swisse Wellness (Swisse), from the founding family and members of management.

The acquisition signed on 17 September 2015 following a competitive sales process, and values Swisse at an enterprise value of more than AUD$1.6bn (approximately US$1.2bn).

DAC Beachcroft is delighted to have advised Partnerships in Care (PiC) on two of their latest acquisitions.

These latest acquisitions expand PiC's mental health, learning disability (LD), acquired brain injuries (ABI) and child adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) by 149 beds, raising its capacity to 2,000. It bolsters PiC's staff by over 1,500 employees and adds, approximately, an additional 1,000 service users.

Taylor Wessing has advised its client, Casual Dining Group, on the acquisition of La Tasca, the Spanish restaurant chain, from Kaupthing.

This latest purchase follows the acquisition of the 41 strong Las Iguanas restaurant business in July, upon which Taylor Wessing also advised.

The addition of La Tasca to Casual Dining Group’s portfolio, increases the group’s UK wide foot print to 280 restaurants, cementing its position as the UK’s leading privately owned casual dining business.