DLA Piper has advised two leading European debt funds, Rantum Capital and Proventus Capital, on their investment in a German family company, Cheplaharm. Both funds granted Cheplapharm Arzneimittel GmbH a subordinated loan, which represents the largest mezzanine financing, independent of banks, for a family-run, medium-sized company in Germany in 2016, to date.

Founded in 2013, Rantum Capital is an alternative asset manager based in Frankfurt am Main with a focus on private debt financing to companies of the German midmarket sector.

The Danish Group, Dansk Landbrugs Grovvareselskab (DLG A.m.b.A.), today announced the sale of the agricultural Grass and Soil implement business of Kongskilde Industries to Italian CNH Industrial, one of  the world’s leading manufacturers of agricultural machinery.

With the sale, DLG finalizes the last and most important part of a divestment process started in 2013.

Orrick advised Graphcore, a semiconductor startup developing new technology to accelerate machine learning and artificial intelligence applications, in its $30 million Series-A funding round.

The funding was led by Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH and Samsung Catalyst Fund, together with several leading venture capital funds from London, Silicon Valley and Israel (including Amadeus Capital Partners, C4 Ventures, Draper Esprit plc, Foundation Capital and Pitango Venture Capital).

VISCHER assisted Inositec AG, a spin-off company of ETH Zurich having its registered seat in Zurich, in its seed financing round. Inositec develops drugs based on inositol hexaphosphate analogs for the treatment of vascular calcification and infections with Clostridium difficile, a highly resistant hospital germ. The CHF 1.4 million financing round included the Venture Incubator Fund and Zürcher Kantonalbank as well as further private investors. The VISCHER-Team was led by Matthias Staehelin (Partner) and Angelo Imperiale (Associate), both Corporate.

Osborne Clarke has advised odoscope GmbH on the closing of a financing round. Investors are investment holding J.F. Müller & Sohn Aktien-Gesellschaft and Dr Engelhardt, Kaupp, Kiefer Unternehmensbeteiligungen GmbH (EKKUB). The investment will be used to accelerate the development of the Operational Intelligence Platform odoscope as well as further establishing its distribution.

Ashurst advised Arc International, the French glass and tableware maker, on its €250m deal with a consortium of investors.

This consortium of investors is composed of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), CDC International Capital (CDC IC), a subsidiary of the French sovereign financial institution Caisse des Dépôts, and Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat).

Allen & Overy announced today that it is advising a consortium comprising Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (Europe) Limited (MIRA) and other global investors, on the acquisition of a 30% interest in EP Infrastructure (EPIF) from Energeticky a prumyslovy holding, a.s. (EPH).

Slaughter and May, Hong Kong, as international counsel, advised HNA Group on the proposed acquisition of a 25% equity interest in Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (Hilton) from its single largest shareholder Blackstone Group LP, for a total consideration of US$6.5 billion.

Hilton is the world’s second-largest hotel operator with 13 brands including Conrad Hotels and Resorts, Curio and Double Tree. HNA Group is a PRC conglomerate with businesses in aviation, holdings, capital, tourism and logistics.

On 24 October 2016 the squeeze-out of the minority shareholders of Medisana AG became effective, the compensation is being paid to shareholders now. A team led by Dr. Thorsten Kuthe, partner at Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek’s Cologne office, advised Medisana’s now sole shareholder Comfort Enterprise (Germany) GmbH and on the general meeting of Medisana AG.
 
Comfort Enterprise (Germany) GmbH is a subsidiary of Xiamen Comfort Science & Technology Group Co., Ltd. (Easepal) and holds about 95.25 percent of Medisana AG.
 

Gide has advised group Siparex on the structuring of its Siparex Intermezzo mezzanine investment fund, launched in 2015 in order to broaden group Siparex financing offer for midmarket and intermediate-sized companies. Siparex Intermezzo, which has just reached its 100-million-euro target size, is active with large midmarket and smaller intermediate-sized companies in various business sectors, mainly in sponsorless deals and mezzanine growth deals.