Leading international law firm SJ Berwin has announced its London office has completed its second real estate transaction for Invesco Real Estate’s pan-European fund.

SJ Berwin advised the fund on the acquisition of the headlease interest in 20 Manchester Square, London W1, which is currently fully let to The Boston Consulting Group UK LLP, from Standard Life Investments Long Lease Property Fund.

The SJ Berwin team was led by partner Darren Rogers, assisted by associate Rachel Burns.

Simpson Thacher is representing Pinnacle Foods Inc. in its $580 million acquisition of the Wish-Bone salad dressings business from Unilever PLC. Pinnacle Foods is controlled by investment funds affiliated with The Blackstone Group L.P.

Wish-Bone is a leading salad dressing brand, holding the #1 share position in the Italian segment. The portfolio being acquired includes a broad range of liquid and dry-mix salad dressing flavors under the Wish-Bone and Western brand names.

National law firm Irwin Mitchell's real estate team has advised US bank, Wells Fargo, on the acquisition of a £4 billion commercial real estate loan book from Hypothekenbank Frankfurt (formerly Eurohypo). This is one of the largest European commercial real estate debt transactions ever.
 
Commerzbank, which owns Hypothekenbank Frankfurt  stated that the blended discount across the whole loan book was 3.5% against a "fair valuation of the portfolio."
 

The property was acquired from Standard Life Investments for £2.9m, representing an initial yield of 11.1%

Shoosmiths' real estate specialist Alan Corcoran led the team, assisted by associate Simon Shoefield (real estate) and solicitor Marcus Woody (planning).

Frankfurt, Germany, 8 August 2013 - Baker & McKenzie advised Sika AG on its offer for AkzoNobel's building adhesives segment. Sika submitted a binding offer of EUR 260 million to acquire the building adhesives business of the Dutch company AkzoNobel.

With annual sales of approximately EUR 185 million and 550 employees, AkzoNobel Building Adhesives branch is one of the top three suppliers in the European market. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Sydney: Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised Australia's Toga Group on the A$183 million acquisition of five Australian hotels.

Toga acquired the hotels in Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin and Sydney through its 50:50 international joint venture in hotel management and ownership with Singapore's Far East Orchard Limited.

The UK subsidiary of ABM, Omni Serv, has acquired the operations of Blackjack Promotions, a specialised staffing and marketing firm that serves airport operators, retailers and other clients throughout the UK and Europe.

ABM is a leading provider of facilities solutions, with 100,000 employees in over 350 offices worldwide, and this acquisition further expands ABM's capabilities in servicing the end-to-end needs of airlines and airport authorities around the globe.

Wragge & Co's Real Estate group has completed its first deal for new client Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (together with its affiliates, KKR), one of the leading global investment firms. It acted for entities advised by or affiliated with KKR, including KKR Financial Holdings LLC (NYSE: KFN), on a 430,000 sq ft retail park portfolio acquisition from investment firm Resolution Property for an undisclosed sum.

Partner John Burns and a cross-firm team advised KKR on the deal, which is the organisation's first real estate acquisition in Europe.