Allen & Overy LLP advised prize Management Group GmbH on the sale of 49% of the shares in prize Holding GmbH to the Rezidor Hotel Group. The Rezidor Hotel Group also acquired the right to take over the remaining 51% stake in four years' time. The parties agreed not to disclose the sale price.

The transaction also involved the contribution by prize Management Group GmbH of its prizeotel business to the newly established prize Holding GmbH, with the Allen & Overy team also advising prize Mangement Group GmbH on this part of the deal.

Berwin Leighton Paisner (Germany) LLP advised Northzone and Creandum on a direct venture capital investment in Germany. The two Scandinavian investors co-lead the Series A funding round of over EUR 6m in Distribusion Technologies GmbH.

The Finnish government has agreed to sell 49.9 per cent of its shares in Patria Oyj to Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS for a purchase price of EUR 272 million.

Hannes Snellman acted as a counsel to Patria and its shareholder. Our team comprised Rabbe Sittnikow, Panu Siitonen, Mikael Wahlbeck, Heikki Vesikansa, Johanna Haltia-Tapio, Jesper Kostiainen, Katja Jaakkola, Daniel Villarreal, Henrik Hautamäki, and Annika Salparanta.

Gide advises Debiopharm Holding with respect to its EUR 100-million investment in connection with Eurosic’s share capital increase, a listed real estate company. This share capital increase, of around EUR 275 million, aims to finance a part of the cash component of the public tender offer initiated by Eurosic on Foncière de Paris securities. The combination with Foncière de Paris would in particular enable Eurosic to become a key player in the office property market in France, and more specifically in the Paris area.

We acted as counsel to Partech Ventures in its investment in M-Files Oy.

M-Files provides smart and efficient information management solutions that help organisations reach significant business advantages by enhancing their operations and process management and by integrating the information generated by different systems. Thousands of companies in more than 100 countries use M-Files to improve the quality and productivity of knowledge work and to ensure the compliance with information management standards and requirements.

On March 17, 2016, freenet AG, the largest network-independent supplier of mobile communications in Germany, announced that it had entered into definitive agreements to acquire 23.83% of the shares of Sunrise Communications Group AG from funds advised by CVC Capital Partners for a purchase price of CHF 72.95 per share, equaling CHF 782 million in total, with the option to acquire an additional of 0.73% of the Sunrise shares. The CEO and the CFO of freenet will be invited to join the Board of Directors of Sunrise.

Frankfurt am Main – Coherent, Inc., a world leader in lasers and laser-based technology for scientific, commercial and industrial customers, and Rofin-Sinar Technologies, Inc., listed on the New York and Frankfurt Stock Exchange, one of the world's leading developers and manufacturers of high-performance industrial laser sources and laser-based solutions and components, announced that their Boards of Directors have unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which Coherent will acquire Rofin for $32.50 per share in cash, in a transaction valued at approximately $942 million.

CVC Capital Partners, one of the world's leading private equity investment and advisory firms, reached an agreement with freenet AG on March 17, 2016, to sell up to 24.56 percent of the shares in Sunrise Communications Group AG. The total transaction value amounts to approx. CHF 800 m. The closing of the transaction is expected to occur soon.

On 17 March 2016, freenet AG signed a contract for the acquisition of a stake of 23.83 per cent in the Swiss telecommunications provider Sunrise Communications Group AG at a price of CHF 72.95 per share(appr. €714m in total). In addition, freenet AG will acquire up to 330,183 further shares (0.73 per cent of the share capital), in Sunrise Communications Group AG next month. The transaction is expected to be completed shortly.

Three Snowhill is the largest ever speculative city centre office scheme to be constructed outside London. The £200 million scheme will be completed in 2018 and will include 385,000 sq ft of offices and 35,000 sq ft of retail and leisure.

The scheme will follow Ballymore's One Snowhill which was completed in 2009 with tenants including KPMG and Barclays Bank, and Two Snowhill which was completed in 2013 with tenants including Gowling WLG, HS2 and Quilter Cheviot.