Cardior Pharmaceuticals today announced the completion of a €15 million Series A financing round led by independent European life sciences investment firm LSP (Life Sciences Partners) with further institutional life sciences investors Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), BioMedPartners (with its new BioMedInvest III Fund), Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). The funds raised will foster the development plan in order to develop Cardior’s proprietary RNA technology to revolutionize predicting and treating heart failure.

King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) have advised Wattle Hill RHC Funds on its recent investment in Eco-Farms. The strategic investment is seen as an important step into the expanding organic food industry.

KWM also advised on the launch of Wattle Hill RHC Fund 1, and its earlier investment in Buderim Group Limited.

Ashurst advised Israeli Nilit Group (Nilit) on the sale of its plastics division including the nylon compounding business to Celanese Corporation (Celanese), a global technology and specialty materials company.

Corporate law experts Dr. Mirko Sickinger, partner at the Cologne office of business law firm Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, and Tobias Nagel advised BE Beteiligungen Fonds GmbH & Co. geschlossene Investmentkommanditgesellschaft on an investment in iic group GmbH. The investment was made by direct participation via the acquisition of shares as part of a capital increase of iic group GmbH and mezzanine financing by granting a shareholder loan.

Walder Wyss advises BC Platforms AG, Basel, on its Series B financing Round. The financing round amounts to CHF 10 mio. was subscribed by Debiopharm Innovation Fund and Finnish Industry Investment as lead investors as well as by existing shareholders.

The Walder Wyss teams consisted of Alexander Gutmans (Partner, Corporate Venture Capital, Life Sciences), Robert von Rosen (Partner, Corporate) and Vanessa C. Haubensak (Associate, Corporate).

Dentex is a dental partnership group operating in the UK with a unique co-ownership model that encourages clinical excellence and growth in profitability. Dentex has the capacity to roll out and support a network of dental practices, and has partnered with several dentists to invest in practices that deliver sustainable cash flow generation, predominantly in the growing private dental market.

Universal Partners is a listed investment holding company with a primary listing on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius and a secondary listing on the JSE’s AltX.

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Squire Patton Boggs has advised on 20 transactions worth over £1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2017. Headline deals included the £750 million acquisition of Zenith by private equity investor Bridgepoint, the £103 million acquisition of Park Leisure and the Warburg Pincus-backed merger of travel services groups Accelya and Mercator.

Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie has advised Steiner AG, a leading Swiss real estate developer and total contractor, on the set up of a regulated investment foundation with the name Steiner Investment Foundation. Steiner AG is the first Swiss contractor to launch such an investment vehicle.

The FinTech startup solarisBank, which was established in 2016, secures growth financing of EUR 26.3 m.

The investors in the series A financing round include Bertelsmann financial services subsidiary Arvato Financial Solutions and the Japanese finance conglomerate, SBI Group. The previous investors Finleap, Hegus and Yabeo will also continue to be investors. At the start of the venture in 2016, the company had already collected EUR 12.2 m from investors.

Dechert LLP advised Lexmark International Inc., a global imaging leader, in the sale of its Enterprise Software business to Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity firm. Lexmark's Enterprise Software business is made up of three primary businesses: Kofax, ReadSoft and Perceptive Software. The closing of the transaction is subject to usual and customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, and is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2017.