Vinge has advised Indistrifonden in connection with its SEK 50 million investment in poLight. poLight is a Norwegian company which has developed a new type of autofocus actuated lense for use in, among other things, mobile phones. In total, the private placement amounts to SEK 150 million and the funds will be used for a planned IPO.
DLA Piper has advised AngelList, the US-based equity crowdfunding platform, on its launch of UK syndicates.
AngelList works by letting experienced angel investors create syndicates that outsiders can join to acquire small slices of a company. The syndicate leader and AngelList take 20 per cent of any gains on an exit — 15 per cent goes to the syndicate lead and 5 per cent goes to AngelList. The rest is distributed among the other individual investors.
Davis Polk is advising Sunac China Holdings Limited in connection with a proposed acquisition of shares in Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. Pursuant to the terms of the share purchase agreement, Sunac has conditionally agreed to acquire approximately 49.25% of the issue shares of Kaisa for an aggregate consideration of approximately $584 million. The acquisition is subject to a number of conditions precedent, including the obtaining of shareholders’ approval.
The eLearning platform Lecturio has successfully completed a financing round with Holtzbrinck Digital, the Internet Holding of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, as Lead Investor. Alongside Holtzbrinck Digital, the existing investors, Seventure Partners, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen and car4you participated in the round. Taylor Wessing advised Lecturio on all legal matters relevant to the transaction.
The Series D round of PE financing of 268V LIMITED (“Cheyipai”), advised by Beijing-based senior partner Li Shoushuang and attorney Li Xue, has been successfully executed, with renren.com acting as the lead investor and preceding investors Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners China, Morningside Ventures and CITIC Capital as co-investors. The US$110mln Series D round is the fourth round of financing since Series A round started in 2011, leading to an accumulative total of US$185mln.
Gide advised Partech Partners on the launch of Partech Growth, a growth capital fund for fast-growing technology and digital companies. Partech Growth, which has a target size of 300 million euros, has just completed its first closing at nearly 200 million euros, with investors including major institutional investors and global corporate investors.
The team included partner Ann Baker and counsel Rima Maîtrehenry, from the Investment Funds & Asset Management practice.
We acted for SPARK Impact Limited, as fund manager for the North West Fund for Biomedical, on a series of investments totalling more than £7 million last year.
Osborne Clarke has advised international investor High Capital Partners on an investment of a € two-digit million amount in the comparison site Finanzcheck.de that specialises in instalment credits. It will use the money to invest in product diversification and branding.
In 2014, NWZ publishing house had invested a € seven-digit million amount in the portal, together with the initial investor B-to-v.
Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co's Life Sciences team has advised GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on the sale of its shareholding interests in biopharmaceutical company Convergence Pharmaceuticals to NASDAQ-listed Biogen Idec. The $675 million deal takes place just four years after the team advised GSK on the spin-out venture which created Convergence.
King & Wood Mallesons advised Azulis Capital, a major French private equity player in the mid-cap segment, on the structuring of its fund, FPCI Middle Market Fund V.
The fund recently announced the completion of the first closing for an amount of more than €120 million from French and international investor groups. Azulis Capital is looking to raise from €200 million to a hard cap of €250 million.