Taylor Wessing has advised YOTEL - the luxury hotel chain dedicated to the delivery of smart spaces - on its $250 million strategic partnership with Starwood Capital Group, a leading global private investment firm.

Starwood’s investment in, and ongoing partnership with, YOTEL includes:

    the acquisition of a 30 percent stake in the company
    expanding YOTEL’s international scale with real estate acquisitions for new builds, hotel conversions and adaptive reuse properties

Clyde & Co has successfully assisted Riverwood Community Centre in Sydney, Australia, to obtain registration as a Public Benevolent Institution (PBI).

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised entities owned by the shareholders of Costamare Shipping Co. S.A. in relation to the joint venture with Döhle.

The newly formed German company will act as charter broker to leading boxship providers, German owned Döhle and Greek owned Costamare, and their combined fleet of over 250 container ships, making it one of the largest containership fleets in the world available to containership end users.

Macfarlanes has advised UK fresh poultry business Faccenda Foods on its proposed establishment of a joint venture with the UK fresh chicken arm of Cargill.

This partnership will see the two companies form a standalone business focused on the fresh chicken, turkey and duck markets with both parties taking an equal shareholding.

The formation of this joint venture is subject to clearance by the relevant regulatory authorities.

DLA Piper has advised JD Sports Fashion Plc (JD), a sports, fashion and outdoor brands retailer, on a joint venture (JV) with Shoemarker Inc (SMK), a South Korean retailer of footwear, in relation to J&S Partners Inc, a company owned by SMK, which currently trades as the multibranded Hot-T fascia (Hot-T).

Slaughter and May is advising Immunocore Limited, the world’s leading T cell receptor (“TCR”) company developing biological drugs to treat cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases, on a collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Slaughter and May, as part of an integrated team with Hengeler Mueller in Germany and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in The Netherlands, is advising Tata Steel Group on its 50/50 Joint Venture with thyssenkrupp AG to create a leading European steel enterprise by combining the flat steel businesses of the two companies in Europe and the steel mill services of the thyssenkrupp group. The Joint Venture would have annual shipments of around 21 million tonnes of flat steel products and have a pro forma turnover of around €15 billion per year.

Gateley Plc, the legal business of law-led professional services group Gateley, has advised leading lending platform Freedom Finance on its joint venture with ASDA Money.

The deal sees both businesses launch a market-first ASDA Personal Loans offering, which will allow ASDA’s customers to access affordable finance. The joint venture will use Freedom Finance’s financial technology platform to search a panel of trusted lenders.

Sheffield-based 3D printing firm, Additive Manufacturing Technologies Ltd (AMT), has announced a partnership deal with Midwest Prototyping LLC (MWP). 

AMT are the world’s first technology company focused on the post-processing of 3D printed parts. Midwest Prototyping specialises in providing 3D printed parts for prototyping as well as high volume end use production applications.

Dentons Europe LLP has advised French automobile manufacturer Renault on the creation of a joint venture with Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO) and Parto Negein Naseh, the current importer of Renault’s vehicles in Iran. This transaction is of strategic importance to the French car manufacturer, which currently has 9,7% of the Iranian market.