Slaughter and May is advising CDC Group plc (CDC) on a new investment of £735 million into the company by the Department for International Development (DFID).

CDC is the UK’s Development Finance Institution (DFI) wholly owned by the UK Government. Founded in 1948, it is the world’s oldest DFI with a history of making successful investments in businesses which have become industry leaders.

CONTACTS

Corporate and Commercial: Tim Pharoah (partner),  Jackie Holland (special adviser), Edward Steward (associate).

CHSH Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati has advised red-stars.com data AG in connection with the acquisition of shares in Machine & Voice Communication GmbH (MAVOCO), whose subsidiary Freeeway GmbH (Freeeway) – a virtual network operator – provides M2M connectivity services based on a portfolio of international wholesale agreements with network operators.

red-stars acquired 33% of the share capital and voting rights during the course of a capital increase of MAVOCO.

Baker & McKenzie recently advised APG Asset Management N.V.,the Dutch pension asset manager ("APG"), on its significant investment in Chongbang Holdings (International) Limited, a Shanghai-based retail-anchored mixed use developer, owner and operator ("CB"), as part of an approximately US$920 million capital raising by CB, which also included a direct investment by Ivanhoé Cambridge, Inc., a real estate subsidiary of la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers.  Proceeds from the capital raising will be u

Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, an investment company based in Singapore, through an indirect wholly owned subsidiary invested into the Rights Offering of Dufry and subsequently further increased its stake in Dufry. Dufry's rights offering was conducted for the purpose of funding partially the acquisition of World Duty Free S.p.A.

Bär & Karrer acted as legal advisor to Temasek. The team included Thomas U. Reutter, Roland Truffer and Annette Weber.

Pinsent Masons advised the Munich start-up company Magazino in its future cooperation with Siemens as well as in Siemens' investment in Magazino by acquiring shares held by High-Tech-Gründerfonds and two other business angels.

Magazino was founded at TU Munich by Frederik Brantner, Lukas Zanger and Nikolas Engelhard. The three entrepreneurs will continue to hold 50.1% of the shares in Magazino and act as managing directors. Siemens acquired an interest of 49.9 %.

Olswang has advised London-based Captify Media, one of the fastest growing advertising technology businesses in Europe, in securing £8 million in Series B funding from venture capital firm Smedvig Capital.

Noerr advised the China Fire Safety Enterprise Group Limited on the acquisition of a stake. The company which is listed on the Hong Kong exchange takes over 40% of the Albert Ziegler Group, one of the worldwide largest manufacturers of fire fighting vehicles and accessories with subsidiaries in a number of European countries and in Asia. The group services above all public sector orders.

One of Denmark’s largest privately owned real estate companies, DADES, gets two new major shareholders. Novo A/S and TryghedsGruppen purchase a combined total of 49.2% of the company’s share capital. The sellers are Realdania, Lønmodtagernes Dyrtidsfond, Nykredit, Forsikringsselskabet Alm. Brand Liv & Pension, Pensionskassen for Teknikum og Diplomingeniører, Danske Bank, Juristernes-og Økonomernes Pensionskasse and Bevica Fonden.

Noerr LLP advised Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) on a further investment in a German growth company. SEP led a USD 22m investment round in Berlin-based company Babbel, which offers the well-known “Babbel” online language courses. Babbel's existing investors Reed Elsevier Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners and VC Fonds Technologie Berlin also participated in the financing round. Noerr acted for SEP with a team led by corporate partner Felix Blobel.

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Mitsui & Co., Ltd. on its acquisition of a 25% equity interest in international student recruitment and consulting company QS Quacquarelli Symonds Limited (QS).

Headquartered in the UK, QS manages foreign student recruitment and provides globalization consulting services to universities and business schools in around 70 countries worldwide.

Partners Lex Papasolomontos in Tokyo and Gillian Fairfield in London advised longstanding client Mitsui, assisted by Lisa Tat and Shaun Lee.