Slaughter and May advised Manchester Airport Group (M.A.G) on the financing for its acquisition of Stansted Airport. As part of the acquisition, which completed on 28 February, Industry Funds Management (IFM) has taken a 35.5% interest in the enlarged group.

The funds for the acquisition come from investment grade financing, consisting of a £900 million term loan and a £300 million revolving credit facility provided by a syndicate of thirteen institutions. The acquisition was also funded by new equity raised from IFM.

Watson, Farley & Williams Asia Practice LLP (“WFW”) is pleased to announce that it advised Standard Chartered Bank, DVB Group Merchant Bank (Asia) Ltd and ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Singapore Branch on a US$135 million senior loan facility to Vision Drilling Pte Ltd to finance part of the construction of a Keppel FELS B Class jack-up rig named "Dynamic Vision".

Slaughter and May advised AngloGold Ashanti, a leading global gold producer headquartered in South Africa, on a new US$750,000,000, syndicated bridge loan facility, pursuant to which a syndicate of banks has agreed to make available US$750,000,000 to AngloGold Ashanti Holdings. In the event AngloGold Ashanti chooses to draw on the loan, the proceeds are to be applied towards the repayment of its US$732,500,000, 3.5% convertible bonds due in May 2014.

The Singapore office of Watson, Farley & Williams LLP ("WFW"), a leading international law firm, is pleased to announce that it has advised DVB Merchant Bank (Asia) Ltd on a US$38,220,000 facility to Vega Corona AS, Vega Crusader AS, Vega Juniz AS and Vega Emtoli AS in order to part finance the acquisition of two platform supply vessels (PSVs) and two oil spill recovery vessels (OSRVs) from Nam Cheong International and Asian Offshore.

Allen & Overy has acted for the underwriting banks on the term loan facilities equivalent to around USD4.4 billion, a high yield bridge equivalent to around USD900 million, a senior secured note bridge equivalent to around USD2.3bn and other facilities for the financing of Liberty Global's USD23.3bn cash and stock bid for Virgin Media.

Clyde & Co has advised National Australia Bank and Barclays Bank on a US$111m bank loan facility to Enstar, a Bermuda-based insurance management provider. The loan financed in part Enstar's $252m acquisition of SeaBright, a workers' compensation insurance company incorporated in the United States.

The Clyde & Co London team was led by partner Chris Lenton and included Susannah Amini with support from partner Robert Ansehl and senior counsel Susan Lee of the firm's New York office.

Ukraine's state controlled oil and gas company, JSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, has signed an English law governed US$ 3.656 billion credit agreement with state owned China Development Bank Corporation to finance various individual projects involving the substitution of natural gas with locally produced coal. The investment programme is intended to help Ukraine increase its energy capacity through the introduction of modern technology, construction of new plants and the upgrading of existing infrastructure.

Ashurst has advised an affiliate of GE Energy Financial Services in relation to a US$20 million borrowing base facility for Trap Oil. The three-year facility is designed to fund development and production expenditure in relation to, inter alia, the group's Athena and Crazy Horse assets in the UK North Sea. In conjunction with the facility, Trap Oil entered into certain hedging arrangements with BP.

Hogan Lovells advised Vietnam Airlines on the ECA financing of five Airbus A321 aircraft, which closed on 8 December 2012.

Vietnam Airlines is the country's State-owned flagship airline carrier and dominates the local market.  Its total annual revenue reached VND 50.89 trillion (US$ 2.4 billion) in 2012.

Ashurst acted for Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, HSH Nordbank AG and WGZ Bank on the financing of the acquisition of a stake in Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH (Kautex) by funds advised by Capiton AG and the Kautex management. The stake was sold by private equity firm Steadfast Capital for an undisclosed consideration.