Shearman & Sterling advised Indian multinational Aditya Birla Group on its $925 million refinancing of existing facilities of certain of its subsidiaries - Alexandria Carbon Black Company, Thai Carbon Black Public Company and the Indigold Carbon Group. The refinancing was arranged by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, Axis Bank Limited, Bank of America, N.A., Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, ICICI Bank, Mizuho Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and State Bank of India.

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, as the Initial Purchasers, on a $1,500,000,000 debt offering by BAE Systems Holding Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of BAE Systems plc.

The issuance featured three tranches: $500,000,000 2.850% Guaranteed Notes due 2020, $750,000,000 3.850% Guaranteed Notes due 2025, and $250,000,000 4.750% Guaranteed Notes due 2044.  The notes are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by BAE Systems plc.

Clifford Chance has advised Barclays Bank PLC, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, HSBC Bank plc, ING Bank N.V., Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale, Natixis, SMBC Nikko Capital Markets Limited and Société Générale on the issue of EUR 650m 2.125% Notes due 2022 by Iliad S.A..

The banks were advised by Clifford Chance with Cedric Burford, partner, and Andrew McCann, senior associate.

Olswang has advised CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings plc, a leading designer, builder, owner, and operator of fibre optic infrastructure in UK towns and cities, on the transformational acquisition of certain national infrastructure assets from KCOM Group plc, a leading provider of communications solutions to both consumer and business markets across the UK. CityFibre will pay £90 million for the assets.

The Athens office of global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Citigroup and Nordea Bank and a syndicate of lenders, on a US$1.3 billion Korean ECA-backed loan facility for GasLog Ltd, the NYSE-listed owner, operator and manager of liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. The loan facility will be used by GasLog to finance its newbuilding programme of eight new build LNG carriers, under construction in Korea by Samsung and Hyundai, and most of which are chartered to BG Group.

Allen & Overy has advised BNP Paribas, the lead manager, on the first export credit agency (ECA) supported bond in respect of ATR aircraft.  The bond is guaranteed by Coface and reinsured by SACE.

The bond was issued in connection with loans provided in relation to ten (10) ATR 72-600 aircraft for the Lion Air Group. This is the highest number of aircraft to be included within a single ECA supported bond issuance. 

Gide advised CNP Assurances on the issuance of its € 750 million subordinated notes due 2047, admitted to trading on the Euronext Paris market. Allen & Overy Paris advised Barclays Bank PLC, J.P Morgan Securities plc, Natixis and UBS Limited as joint lead managers.

Gide's team was led by partner Hubert du Vignaux, assisted by Bastien Raisse and Aude-Laurène Dourdain.

On 16 December 2015, King & Wood Mallesons advised on the successful issuance in China’s interbank market of the registered RMB 3 billion sovereign bonds by the government of the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea). The tenor of the bonds is three years, and the coupon rate is 3.00%. The RMB bonds issued by the Republic of Korea (also known as “Panda Bonds”, which are RMB-denominated bonds issued by a non-PRC issuer in the PRC) is the first RMB bonds issued by a foreign sovereign in China, which is a milestone project in the process of the RMB internationalization.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Bibby Financial Services Limited on the securitisation of its existing £480m loan book of factoring and invoice finance receivables, enabling it to boost lending by £290m. The transaction is the first rated private sector securitisation deal by a non-bank asset-based lender covering multiple legal jurisdictions.

The joint lead managers were Barclays, Bank of America, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group, and the transaction was awarded AA and Aa2 ratings from DBRS and Moody’s respectively.

Slaughter and May advised Santander UK Group Holdings plc on its issue under its EUR 30 billion Euro Medium Term Note Programme of JPY 3,000,000,000 0.557 per cent. Notes due 2018 and JPY 27,000,000,000 0.787 per cent. Notes due 2020.