On November 18, 2015, CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) announced that it has accelerated its common stock repurchase program, having agreed to repurchase 22 million shares of its common stock from Careal Holding AG, its largest shareholder, in a private transaction valued at USD 584 million.

Careal Holding used CA's share buyback program as an opportunity to rebalance Careal Holdings' assets as part of an overall reallocation while Careal Holding and its shareholders remain the principal shareholders of CA Technologies.

Shearman & Sterling advised Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank as global coordinator, joint lead manager and joint bookrunner and Octo Finances as joint lead manager and joint bookrunner on the issue by Ausy of net share settled bonds convertible into new shares and/or exchangeable for existing shares (ORNANE) by private placement, of a nominal amount of 29,999,993.73 euros, represented by 552,181 bonds.

On 3 January 2016, automotive group Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) (FCA) completed the separation of the Ferrari business from FCA. On 4 January 2016 Ferrari N.V. (NYSE: RACE) (Ferrari) was admitted to trading in Milan (MTA).

Loyens & Loeff acted as Dutch corporate and tax counsel to FCA and Ferrari and was involved inter alia in respect of the various Dutch law demerger and merger steps required for the separation, as well as in drafting and the approval and pass porting process of the prospectus for the listing of Ferrari on MTA.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Jefferies Hong Kong on a US$34 million placing of new H shares of Launch Tech Company Limited.

Launch Tech Company Limited is a Hong Kong listed company engaged in the provision of products and services serving the automotive aftermarket and the automobile industry in the People’s Republic of China and certain overseas countries.

Jefferies is a global firm providing a full range of investment banking, sales, trading, research and strategy services to investors, companies and governments.

Lenz & Staehelin acted as counsel to Edmond de Rothschild Real Estate SICAV, one of the major real estate SICAVs in Switzerland, within the capital increase of CHF 80 million of its sub-fund Swiss and the listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange of the new shares on December 11, 2015.

The Lenz & Staehelin team included François Rayroux (Partner) and Laurence Vogt Scholler (Counsel).

On 5 January, Miss Etam's reverse listing was completed. Miss Etam was transferred to an entity with an existing listing on Euronext Amsterdam, allowing the transaction to be consummated in a rapid and efficient manner. Through the completion of the reverse listing, R&S Retail Group was created, the new parent company of Miss Etam. R&S Retail Group has the ambition to acquire additional retail- and fashion chains and to create value through the creation of synergies, optimalisation of internal processes and an omnichannel approach.

GCL New Energy proposes to issue 5,201,922,393 rights shares at HK$0.45 each (US$0.06), on the basis of three rights shares for every eight shares held by eligible shareholders.

GCL New Energy’s listed parent, GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Limited, will participate in the GCL New Energy rights issue and is conducting a concurrent rights issue to raise approximately US$444m – it will use part of the proceeds to fund the subscription of the GCL New Energy rights shares.

Linklaters has advised PICC Property and Casualty Company (“PICC P&C”) on the compliance with the Hong Kong Listing Rules matters in relation to its acquisition of 19.99% stake in Hua Xia Bank from Deutsche Bank.

Linklaters has assisted PICC P&C with review of the underlying transaction document and preparation of the regulatory announcements.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised YiChang HEC ChangJiang Pharmaceutical on its Hong Kong IPO.

The value of the listing, which commenced trading on 29 December 2015, is US$173m.

YiChang HEC ChangJiang Pharmaceutical is a leading manufacturer and distributor of pharmaceutical products in mainland China, with an emphasis on metabolic and endocrine antiviral products.

The Freshfields team advising on the transaction was led by corporate partner Richard Wang and US corporate partner David Ludwick.

Simpson Thacher represented the underwriters in the initial public offering in Hong Kong and Rule 144A/Regulation S offering by Xinte Energy Co., Ltd. (“Xinte Energy”). Xinte Energy offered an aggregate of 146,500,000 H shares (prior to the exercise of the overallotment option), which raised HK$1,289.2 million (approximately US$166.3 million) in gross proceeds. The H shares of Xinte Energy are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. UBS Securities Hong Kong Limited and GF Capital (Hong Kong) Limited acted as the joint sponsors.