Ashurst acted as the lead counsel to Netherlands' largest pension fund manager APG Asset Management NV ("APG") in their US$175 million additional capital commitment to Virtuous Retail South Asia Pte. Ltd. ("VRSA"), India’s only institutionally backed retail platform.
DWF has advised technology start-up Reconfigure.io on the investment in the business by Manchester-based cloud hosting business UKFast, which will see the software start-up enter its next phase of strategic growth.
Osborne Clarke has advised emmasbox GmbH, on the closing of its seven-digit financing round. The investment comes from Migros Aare and several existing investors.
emmasbox specialises in click & collect solutions for retail and logistics. They distribute refrigerated parcel lockers for food that maintain the refrigeration chain of fresh food. The company also offers software solutions that enable customers to link online trade with the fixed presence of parcel lockers.
Slaughter and May is advising Premier Oil plc in connection with the disposal of its 33.8 per cent. stake in Wytch Farm to Perenco UK Limited for a cash consideration of US$200 million. As part of the transaction, Premier Oil will also be released from letters of credit totalling approximately US$75 million. The disposal is classified as a class 1 transaction for Premier Oil under the Listing Rules. It is expected to complete in December 2017.
Clifford Chance advised Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) on its proposed 30 billion yen investment in ETC Group Limited (ETG).
With its headquarters in Dubai, ETG has business bases in 330 locations across 36 countries, concentrated mainly in East Africa and countries bordering the Indian Ocean, and a wide-range of business operations which include agricultural products, sales of agricultural supplies (such as fertilizers, agrochemicals and seeds), as well as the manufacture and sale of foodstuffs.
Slaughter and May, Hong Kong, is advising Alibaba Group Holding Limited (Alibaba), in relation to its proposed acquisition, through its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Taobao China Holding Limited, of an economic interest of approximately 36.16% in Sun Art Retail Group Limited (Sun Art), a company listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, for an aggregate consideration of HK$22.4 billion (approximately US$2.88 billion). The acquisition was announced on 20 November 2017.
Travers Smith LLP has advised client SV Health Managers LLP in relation to the recent closing of Dementia Discovery LP. DDF Investors admitted to the DDF at the closing include Bill Gates, who has committed a $50 million investment, resulting in the current total commitments from investors exceeding the original target of £130 million.
Skadden is advising Auchan Retail S.A. on the acquisition of a 36.16 percent stake in its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Sun Art Retail Group Ltd. by Alibaba Group Holding Limited for HK$22.4 billion (approximately US$2.88 billion), and on the formation of a strategic alliance with Alibaba and Ruentex Group.
Orrick has advised Graphcore, a semiconductor startup developing new technology to accelerate machine learning and artificial intelligence applications, in its $50 million Series C funding round by Sequoia Capital. To date, Graphcore has raised $110 million since its inception less than 18 months ago.
Graphcore’s chips are designed specifically to power machine learning systems and have up to 100 times more processing power than standard chips.
Simpson Thacher represented KKR in its additional investment in Avendus Capital. The Firm also represented KKR in its acquisition of a majority stake in Avendus Capital in 2015. Avendus Capital is a leading provider of financial services in India, with businesses spanning from investment banking services to wealth management, credit solutions and alternative asset management, and has offices in five cities in India as well as in London and New York.
The Simpson Thacher team includes Ian Ho and Erik Wang (M&A); and Rajib Chanda and Christopher Healey (Registered Funds).