Eversheds Bianchini, the Italian offices of law firm Eversheds has advised Mandarin Capital Partners on the sale of its 40% stake in Dagong Europe, to parent company Dagong Global Credit Rating.
Clifford Chance is advising Hearst Corporation on its recently-announced agreement to purchase a 30 percent equity stake in Fitch Group, the global ratings agency. The purchase price for the stake is US $1.965 billion, subject to certain adjustments. The transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015, will increase Hearst's ownership interest in Fitch to 80 percent.
Clifford Chance advised AEW Europe on a €820mn capital raising for LOGISTIS. This represents the largest equity raising to date for AEW Europe and brings the total equity of LOGISTIS to more than €1.3bn. The new equity has been raised from a number of leading institutional investors from Europe and Asia, including APG and PGGM among others. The capital raised exceeded the original equity target, with the five largest new investors committing in excess of €600mn in aggregate.
White & Case LLP is advising Airbus Group, a European multinational aerospace and defence company, on the sale of its 26.8 percent minority stake in Patria Oyj, a Finnish defence company, to the company.
Following the transaction, Patria will cancel a part of the shares and, for the time being, will be under full control of the State of Finland.
The Munich, Frankfurt and London offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP are advising leading global growth equity firm General Atlantic on the sale of a 15% share in Axel Springer Digital Classifieds GmbH to German listed media company Axel Springer SE for a cash purchase price of EUR 446 million. At the same time, General Atlantic has granted Axel Springer SE an option to purchase its remaining 15% share in Axel Springer Digital Classifieds GmbH. If the option is exercised, General Atlantic is to receive shares in Axel Springer as consideration.
Gro Capital A/S, the former Dansk Kapitalanlæg Aktieselskab, headed by managing partner Lars Dybkjær, will manage the new fund with DKK 1 bn in commitment from Danica Pension.
AllBright partner Philip Zhang recently led a team to provide GLP, Inc. with legal services regarding its investment project in Dalian, Liaoning Province. The project involves the establishment of a project company, winning land use rights through public bidding, and converting the project company into a Sino-Foreign joint venture through investment. AllBright’s service included due diligence investigations over the land plot as well as drafting an investment agreement and joint venture corporate charter.
China Securities Regulatory Commission approved Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co., Ltd.’s (600429.SH) application for the private placement of its A-shares. According to its proposal, Sanyuan Foods will issue an additional of 612,557,426 A-shares at 6.53 RMB per share, among which 306,278,713 shares will be sold at about 1 billion RMB to two units under Fosun International (00656.HK). After the private placement, Fosun International will own a 20.45% stake in Sanyuan Foods through its two subsidiaries.
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has advised Axel Springer on the increase of its share in Axel Springer Digital Classifieds GmbH from 70 percent to 85 percent. Axel Springer and global growth investor General Atlantic have reached a binding agreement on increasing Axel Springer’s share against payment of a purchase price in cash of EUR 446 million and a purchase option for Axel Springer for the remaining percent. In the event of exercising options, General Atlantik would receive Axel Springer shares.
Burges Salmon has advised its long-standing client Mobeus Equity Partners LLP on the combined debt and equity package that it has provided to support the £25m buyout of Ward Thomas Group, a brand-led specialist logistics, storage and removals business.
The multi-disciplinary team from Burges Salmon that advised Mobeus on the transaction was led by partner Richard Spink with assistance from senior associate Vanessa Barnicoat.