MUNICH, June 22, 2017 – The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has advised the Munich start-up Scalable Capital on an investment by the major asset manager, BlackRock. BlackRock is participating in Scalable Capital with €30 million, leading the new financing round, alongside existing investors HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and Tengelmann Ventures. BlackRock has taken a significant minority equity stake in Scalable Capital to help them grow their business with financial institutions and corporates.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP has advised EQT in the formation of EQT Real Estate I (“the fund”), a €420 million European real estate fund. The fund, which has now reached final close, is the first real estate fund from EQT. It will invest in value-add real estate assets with a focus on repositioning high-yielding properties, predominantly in the office sector, in gateway cities in western Europe.

DAC Beachcroft has led a series B Round Investment for Ultrahaptics of £17.9m. The tech company has developed remarkable technology that allows users to touch virtual objects in mid-air.

The firm advised on corporate, IP and tax aspects of the round. DAC Beachcroft's team was led by Corporate partner Michael Pearce, with support from Intellectual Property partner Andrew Allan-Jones, Corporate Tax partner, John Dunlop and Corporate solicitor Charlotte Laband.

Eurosic entered on last 20 June into an agreement in view of a merger with Gecina. Pursuant to this agreement, Gecina will purchase 94.8% of Eurosic’s share capital (on a diluted basis), by way of acquisition in cash of 85.3% of Eurosic’s share capital and by way of exchange for 9.5% of Eurosic’s share capital under a mandatory tender offer which shall be filed by Gecina by 30 October 2017.

On 7 June, the transaction was closed in which PFR and PZU acquired approx. 32.8% of the shares in Bank Pekao, for a total of PLN 10.6 billion (EUR 2.65 billion approx.). This came after Poland's Financial Supervisory Authority (the KNF) approved the transaction on 4 May, as performance of the share purchase agreement concluded in December 2016. With this operation, PZU now owns 52.49 million shares (approx. 20%), while PFR holds 33.6 million shares (approx. 12.8%) in Bank Pekao.

DLA Piper has assisted the shareholders of Happy Plugs AB in connection with Scope's investment in the company. Happy Plugs designs and produces mobile devises such as headphones and speakers and has, among others, collaborated with H&M.

DLA Piper's team consisted of Peder Grandinson (responsible partner), Magnus Oskarsson and Sofia Kax.

Houthoff Buruma advised Dümmen Orange on the acquisition of the Calla business of Golden State Bulb Growers Inc. and G. Geerlings & Zonen B.V. and the Calla breeding Sande companies. Pursuant to this series of acquisitions, Dümmen Orange was able to create establish a global leader in Calla breeding.

Houthoff Buruma team included: Bram Caudri , Joram van den Berg , Luke van de Laar , Josephine de Bok , Cherlene Blankson , Jasmijn Harms , Tessa Rozendal , Jessica den Dekker , Ivar Brouwer , Anna Wijnans , Fabienne Renes , Thijs Poelert

DUBAI, 19 June 2017 – Hogan Lovells has advised Kingdom Holding Company ("KHC") on their acquisition of a 7% stake in Careem – a Dubai- based, chauffeur-driven car booking service.

KHC acquired their stake of Careem through a Secondary Share purchase, as well as participating in the latest Primary Round E-1 Capital Raise, amounting to a total transaction value of US$62M.

Bird & Bird has advised Sapphire Ventures, the Silicon Valley based venture capital firm, on its US$20 million Series C round financing of Culture Amp, the employee feedback and analytics platform with operations in Australia, the UK and the US and whose customers include Airbnb, Adobe, Estée Lauder and Lyft.

The round also saw participation from existing investors including Index Ventures, Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures. Culture Amp intends to use the funds to grow its team and to further invest in its people analytics technology.

Travers Smith LLP has advised longstanding client Equistone Partners Europe ("Equistone") on its investment in the Willerby Group. Equistone has acquired a majority stake in Willerby investing alongside management.

Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Hull, Willerby is the UK's largest manufacturer of static caravans and lodges, generating an annual turnover of £155 million, producing 70 different models across 23 ranges of products and employing c.900 people.