Global legal practice Norton Rose Fulbright has advised containership charter owner Global Ship Lease as issuer, and its subsidiaries as guarantors, of US$420 million 10 per cent secured US notes and a US$40 million revolving credit facility. The notes have been issued and the credit facility arranged in connection with the refinancing of 17 vessels.

Norton Rose Fulbright advised on the English law, Marshall Islands law and Dutch law security documents and shipping issues, and assumed co-ordination responsibilities for significant parts of the transaction.

Navigating complicated Russian market circumstances, Allen & Overy’s Moscow team recently advised two syndicates of lenders on new loan facilities for Sberbank Europe AG (an Austrian bank owned by the state-owned Sberbank of Russia) and Credit Bank of Moscow (a privately owned Russian bank).

DLA Piper has advised catering and hospitality group DO & CO on the successful placement of a EUR 150 million corporate bond.

The deal was led by partner Christian Temmel, who acted as transaction counsel for the joint lead manager and the issuer.

The bond, with a maturity of seven years, was offered to private and institutional investors and placed in Austria and Germany.

Clifford Chance advised Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft in connection with the placement of two issues of undated subordinated notes subject to interest rate reset, consisting of EUR 1.25 billion of notes with a first call date in 2021 (NC7 Notes) and EUR 1.75 billion of notes with a first call date in 2026 (NC12 Notes).

Esin Attorney Partnership, a member firm of Baker & McKenzie International, and Baker & McKenzie advised ING Group's Turkish subsidiary on a syndicated loan obtained for trade finance purposes.

Cravath represented Premier Foods Finance plc in connection with its 144A/Reg. S high-yield offering of £325 million senior secured notes and £175 million senior secured floating rate notes, to be guaranteed by Premier Foods plc and certain of its subsidiaries. Premier Foods is one of the United Kingdom’s largest food producers. The notes were listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. The transaction closed on March 17, 2014.

Clifford Chance has advised on two RMB-denominated bond issuances totalling RMB2.5 billion in the last month. These include:

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised China Aluminum International Engineering Corporation Limited (Chalieco) on the US$300 million senior guaranteed perpetual capital securities by Chalieco Hong Kong Corporation Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chalieco. The securities are guaranteed by Chalieco and include a keepwell deed provided by Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco), the parent company of Chalieco. The senior guaranteed perpetual capital securities are listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

Linklaters LLP has represented Marfrig Overseas Limited in connection with the reopening of its 9.50% senior notes due 2020.  The further issuance of US$275m 9.50% senior notes due 2020 will be consolidated with, and form a single series with, the US$500m principal amount of the notes that were originally issued on May 4, 2010. This was the third bond issuance on which Linklaters advised Marfrig in the past two years. This bond was the first high yield debt issuance by a Brazilian company in 2014. The notes were unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by Marfrig Global Foods S.A.

Clifford Chance advised the joint lead managers on the bond issue of Aareal Bank AG, Wiesbaden, with a volume of EUR 300 million. The bond consists of Subordinated Callable Fixed Rate Reset Notes with scheduled maturity in March 2026.

The Notes shall constitute own funds in the form of supplementary capital (Tier 2 Capital) according to the applicable regulations.The issue was among the first by a German bank under the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) which entered into force in January 2014.