Weightmans has advised Liverpool City Council on the establishment of its new cycle hire scheme. The scheme will initially consist of around 100 bikes at 10 bike stations across Liverpool, but will rise to 1,000 bikes at 100 stations by 2015.
The Liverpool scheme attempts to mirror the facility available in London (aka "Boris Bikes"). The intention is to reduce the number of cars on the road, boost sustainable transport and reduce congestion and greenhouse emissions.
Clyde & Co has advised the Guinean government on the Simandou South iron ore mining project Investment Framework which was signed with Rio Tinto, Chinalco and The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, in Conakry, the Guinean capital, on 26 May 2014. The next step is the finalisation of the Bankable Feasibility Study in early 2015.
Shoosmiths and commercial property advisor GVA have given pro-bono advice to a leading Manchester homeless charity after a surge of homelessness forced it to move premises.
After 19 years based in Manchester Cathedral, the new-look Booth Centre at Edward Holt House on Pimblett Street launched on Thursday 15 May. Edward Holt House has been funded by the Edward Holt Trust which instructed GVA to assist in finding a suitable new premises and for Shoosmiths' Manchester real estate team provide legal advice.
Shoosmiths has advised global real estate services firm CBRE on their move to 55 Temple Row in the city. 100 CBRE staff will move from the real estate firm's current Cornwall Court offices on Edmund Street to their new base opposite Birmingham Cathedral later this summer.
55 Temple Row is the former Birmingham branch of the Bank of England and is a landmark building in the city centre. Clad in Portland stone and with copper-clad beams, the offices can be seen from almost every part of Cathedral Square.
Clifford Chance is advising Mondelez International on an agreement announced earlier today that will see Mondelez International and D.E. Master Blenders 1753 B.V. combine their respective coffee businesses to create the world's leading pure-play coffee company, with annual revenues in excess of US$7 billion (€5 billion). The new company will be called Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) and be based in The Netherlands.
Dechert LLP recently advised RAK Maritime City in its negotiations with Zuari Agro Chemicals Limited to develop a Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) manufacturing facility in the United Arab Emirates, a project estimated at US$950 million. The facility, which will be located in RAK Maritime City’s free economic zone, will have the capacity of producing 1 million tons of DAP per year. Dechert’s UAE-based team representing RAK Maritime City was led by Gavin Watson, and included partner John Podgore and senior associate Greg Nixon.
The Department for Transport and Agility Trains East, with its shareholders Hitachi Rail Europe & John Laing Investments, achieved financial close for the East Coast Main Line fleet of trains for the DfT's Intercity Express Programme.
Under the new £2.7 billion contract, nearly 500 new Class 800 series carriages will be manufactured by Hitachi. The new trains are a combination of fully electric and bi-mode trains, the latter have diesel and electric propulsion.
The Class 800 series trains will start running on the East Coast Main Line from 2018.
Dentons has advised Al Khayyat Investments (AKI), a major UAE-based trading house, in respect of the franchise and development agreement for the first ever Fortnum & Mason store outside of London.
The 9,400-square foot, three-storey store opened in March in the Dubai Mall area. It is prominently positioned by the fountains near the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper. The Dubai Mall is the largest shopping destination in the world by visitor count, reporting 72 million visitors in 2013.
DLA Piper has advised the newly formed Department for Transport (DfT) Rail Executive on one of the first franchise direct awards since the Executive's creation earlier this year.
The Greater Anglia franchise, which encompasses over 150 stations in the Greater Anglia area and provides local, suburban and express services from London to, and within, destinations in Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk was directly awarded to Abellio Greater Anglia Limited (owned by the Dutch State Railway Company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen), the incumbent train operator.
Slaughter and May advised the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) on the Investment Contracts that were awarded on 23 April 2014 under the Final Investment Decision Enabling for Renewables programme. The award of Investment Contracts to eight new renewables projects (including offshore wind farms, coal to biomass conversions and a dedicated biomass plant with combined heat and power) represents the first step in the Government’s Electricity Market Reform (EMR) Contracts for Difference regime.