Vienna, 30 January 2017 – Tricentis, a company specialising in automated software testing solutions, has gained a new financial investor in Insight Venture Partners. Wolf Theiss has been advising the Vienna software company, which has subsidiaries in the US, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Poland, Great Britain, Australia and India, for many years throughout their expansion course.

Shoosmiths has advised Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) on its £16m investment into national hair salon Rush.

Fast becoming the leading hair and beauty brand in the UK, Rush has 85 salons across the country including in Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and Bristol with a flagship branch, House of Rush, on London's Piccadilly.

The investment from LDC will help to accelerate Rush's national expansion of the brand as the company plans to almost double its salon count over the next four years. As part of the deal, LDC will acquire a minority shareholding.

Holman Fenwick Willan advised Paris-based Publicis Groupe (world's third largest communications group) on its equity investment in Swiss and US branding firm MetaDesign.

Georges Racine, Partner (HFW Geneva) advised Publicis Groupe on all the corporate aspects of the deal.

MetaDesign was advised by law firm Bertsch Minder Partner in Zurich (Switzerland).

Baker McKenzie’s Stockholm office advised McDonald’s on its share sale and purchase agreement and the Master Franchise Agreement with Mr. Guy Hands to operate and develop McDonald’s Restaurants in the Nordic markets as the Developmental Licensee.

Jiangsu Olive Sensors High-Tech Co.,Ltd. (“Olive”) through its wholly owned subsidiary in Luxembourg, acquired 32% of the shares in the Plettenberg subsidiary and in the Polish subsidiary of Schürholz, which specialize in stamping, stamping-bending, welding and assembling. The share purchase contracts were notarized January 13, 2017.
 

PARIS – Dechert LLP advised Accel Partners, a U.S. venture capital firm, in relation to a €26 million fund raising in Doctolib notably with Bpifrance Participations, a major French investment fund. Accel Partners is a lead shareholder in Doctolib, a company dedicated to the development and marketing of an online booking platform and management software for doctors in Europe, while more generally providing health professionals management and communication tools.

The German private equity investor Odewald KMU (Berlin) has acquired a majority stake in Karl Schmidt GmbH. Karl Schmidt GmbH is headquartered in Oldendorf in Prussia and the family company has operated a chain bakery for four generations. With over 400 employees and more than 50 branches, the company is the market leader in the North Rhine-Westphalia region.

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has advised Gett, the global on-demand mobility company, on its $100m financing from Sberbank, the largest lender in Russia.

Number one in Europe, Gett is available in more than 100 cities worldwide including New York, Moscow, Tel Aviv and London, where more than half of all black cabs are part of the Gett network.

Gett will use the Sberbank funding to rapidly expand its services. This funding complements Gett’s recent $300m strategic investment from Volkswagen, bringing total funds raised by Gett to $640m.

Gilde Buy Out Partners sold HG International, a leading European supplier of specialist consumer cleaning and maintenance products, to Cobepa. The management team will continue to be a significant shareholder in the company. The completion of the transaction is expected to take place in February 2017.

Value of transaction
Undisclosed, but more than EUR 250 million.

Dentons advised RiverRock European Capital Partners on its very first investment in Italy on behalf of the Italian Hybrid Capital Fund. The fund invested €9 million in the Filippetti Group, a leader in information and communication technology and the Internet of Things in Italy.

Founded in 2009, RiverRock is an alternative investment firm specialized debt-equity investments in small and medium sized European companies. RiverRock’s newly established Italian Hybrid Capital Fund provides access to capital to SMEs in Italy.