Ashurst advised Jefferies International Ltd as the sole UK financial adviser to Fondul Proprietatea S.A. ("Fondul"), the Romanian closed-end fund, in relation to the admission to trading on the Specialist Fund Market of the London Stock Exchange of Global Depositary Receipts representing interests in the Fondul's shares.

Fondul, the world's fifth largest closed-end fund, consists of a portfolio of Romanian equity securities with assets of over €2.9 billion and has been listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange since January 2011.

Davis Polk advised Telefónica, S.A. in connection with an SEC-registered underwritten rights offering of 281,213,184 ordinary shares. The offering raised gross proceeds of approximately €3.0 billion. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., Banco Santander, S.A., CaixaBank, S.A., J.P. Morgan Securities plc., Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc. and UBS Limited were the joint global coordinators of the offering.   

Travers Smith LLP has advised its long-standing client Pinewood Group plc on a fund raise of £30 million through a placing of new ordinary shares with institutional and other investors, which completed on 17 April 2015. In addition, Pinewood has agreed new bank facilities of up to £135 million with Lloyds Bank plc, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, HSBC Bank plc and Barclays Bank plc.

Slaughter and May is advising SVG Capital plc (SVG Capital) in relation to a return of up to £70 million to shareholders by way of a tender offer for ordinary shares and a subsequent repurchase by SVG Capital. The tender offer is subject to shareholder approval at the Company’s annual general meeting to be held on 1 May 2015.

CONTACTS

Corporate: Robin Ogle (partner), Richard Marron (associate); Tax: Tony Beare (partner).

publity AG, an asset manager with focus on German office properties, property financings in sometimes distressed situations and specialised in the development, launch, sales and management of investments has gone public on 2 April 2015. GSK Stockmann + Kollegen has comprehensively advised publity AG on the IPO executed under the Entry Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

King & Wood Mallesons has acted on DEXUS Property Group’s (DEXUS) A$400 million institutional placement. The institutional placement is fully underwritten by Deutsche Bank AG, Sydney Branch and Goldman Sachs Australia Pty Ltd.

Following completion of the institutional placement, DEXUS will undertake a non-underwritten security purchase plan for eligible Securityholders in Australia and New Zealand.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges acted as lead legal counsel on matters of Polish, U.K. and U.S. law to joint global coordinators Goldman Sachs International, Dom Maklerski Mercurius, Pekao Investment Banking and UniCredit Bank AG, in connection with the initial public offering (the IPO) of Idea Bank S.A. on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on April 16, 2015.

Simmons & Simmons is advising J.P. Morgan Cazenove and Numis as Joint Bookrunners in connection with the placing by The Unite Group plc (“Unite” or the “Company”) of new ordinary shares in the Company with institutional investors to raise approximately £115m announced on 16 April 2015 (the “Placing”).

Clifford Chance advised Serco Group plc ("Serco"), the FTSE 250 international services company, on its fully underwritten rights issue to raise approximately £555 million and the refinancing of its existing lending facilities, including a £480 million revolving credit facility.

The Clifford Chance Corporate team was led by partners Patrick Sarch and Steven Fox along with US securities partner Chris Walton, with support from senior associates Graham Phillips and Kama Ostoya and associates Rui Huo, Drew Rundus and Graeme Mackay.

Hong Kong team advises on what will be one of Hong Kong’s biggest issuances of the year.

With today’s Hong Kong listing of GF Securities - China’s fourth largest brokerage by assets - Latham & Watkins has advised on all three of 2015’s largest Hong Kong IPOs to date.

GF Securities’ market debut is expected to be the biggest listing in the territory so far this year. Priced at HK$18.85 per H share, the top of its indicative price range, the sale of 1.48 billion new shares is expected to raise US$3.6 billion.