Slaughter and May advised Marks & Spencer (M&S) on the sale and franchise of its retail business in Hong Kong and Macau to its long-established franchise partner, Al-Futtaim. The sale, which completed on 30 December 2017, sees Al-Futtaim become the new sole franchisee for M&S in Hong Kong and Macau.

The sale follows M&S’s strategic review of its international business in November 2016, where M&S proposed to have a greater focus on its established franchise and joint venture partnerships and operate with fewer wholly-owned markets.

Contacts

Ashurst advised Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH (Warburg-HIH Invest) on the sale of the office and commercial building "Kö-Blick" in Dusseldorf's Königsallee 61 to the "Cicerone Fund", an Italian pension fund managed by CBRE Global Investors and Fabrica SGR. The property belonged to the portfolio of an individual fund (open real estate special AIF) of Warburg-HIH Invest. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase volume.

DLA Piper has advised the commercial REIT alstria office on the sale of an office and business property to Cresco Capital Group, with the purchase price amounting to €44 million. The building, which is located at Eschenheimer Landstrasse 55 in Frankfurt, is let for a remaining period of two years and generates annual revenues of approximately €1.6 million. Alstria expects the transaction to reach its conclusion in the first quarter of 2018.

Dentons represented Indykpol S.A. in the sale of its chicken abattoir in Lublin and chicken hatchery in Turka to SuperDrob. The transaction value was close to EU45 million.

Loyens & Loeff advised Red Company, a Dutch based development company, with the sale of 2 office buildings consisting of approximately 20,000 sqm and 400 parking spaces for a value of 91 million.

Contacts
    Bram Linnartz

Loyens & Loeff advised Changes, the developer of community-concepts for specific groups, with the sale of an apartment building consisting of 596 apartments in Amsterdam.

Contacts
    Bram Linnartz
    Steven Lucas
    Felicitas Stern

DLA Piper has advised Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Limited (ASX: SOL) (WHSP) on their asset sale agreement for the sale of a portfolio of securities to Acorn Capital Investment Fund Limited (ASX: ACQ) (Acorn Capital).

Acorn Capital will acquire a portfolio of seven assets from WHSP, consisting of six unlisted and one ASX-listed assets, for approximately AU$7.6m.

The purchase price is proposed to be funded by the issue of ordinary shares in Acorn Capital, representing the largest shareholding in the fund.

A&O is advising Old Mutual Wealth (OMW) on the disposal of its single strategy asset management business (the Single Strategy Business) to funds managed by TA associates and the Single Strategy Business management team for consideration of approximately £600 million.

DLA Piper has advised the commercial REIT alstria office on the sale of an office and business property to Cresco Capital Group, with the purchase price amounting to €44 million. The building, which is located at Eschenheimer Landstrasse 55 in Frankfurt, is let for a remaining period of two years and generates annual revenues of approximately €1.6 million. Alstria expects the transaction to reach its conclusion in the first quarter of 2018.