Houthoff Buruma advised Qingdao Port International (QPI) on the establishment of a joint venture with APM Terminals (part of the Maersk group). Through the joint venture QPI acquires indirectly 9.9% in both of a reefer terminal and a container terminal at the port of Vado Ligure in Italy. QPI is listed in Hong Kong. The joint venture marks QPI’s first step in its expansion into the overseas terminal business.

Houthoff Buruma team included: William Guo , Michiel Wesseling , Paul de Vries

Leading global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has advised BP on its first major investments in Mauritania and Senegal through a US$916 million deal with Kosmos Energy to acquire interests in offshore exploration blocks

As part of the transaction BP has signed agreements to take a 62 percent interest in Kosmos's exploration blocks in Mauritania, including operatorship, and an effective 32.5 percent interest in the US company's exploration blocks in Senegal.

London—Dentons, together with Anya & Associates in Indonesia, has advised  PT Pertamina (Persero), the Fortune Global 500 state-owned oil and gas company of the Republic of Indonesia, on a joint venture agreement with the Russia’s largest oil company, Rosneft, to jointly develop a new refining and petrochemical complex in Tuban, East Java. The Tuban refinery is set to be the first oil refinery built in Indonesia in 22 years and is expected to have a crude processing capacity in excess of 300,000 bpd while being targeted for completion in the early 2020s.

Dechert LLP served as international counsel to Shanghai Shenda Co., Ltd. ("Shenda") based in Shanghai, China in connection with Shenda's agreement to form a global joint venture to supply soft trim and acoustics products to automotive original equipment manufacturers with International Automotive Components ("IAC"). A global enterprise, the joint venture will operate 21 manufacturing facilities and 4 technical centers around the world.

Schoenherr has advised Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH ("Haniel") alongside lead counsel Glade Michel Wirtz in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia in connection with the formation of a joint venture with Rentokil Initial plc ("Rentokil Initial") to create a leading provider of workwear and hygiene services in Europe. The joint venture will be formed through the transfer of the Rentokil Initial businesses into CWS-boco, a company owned by Haniel. The agreement to create a joint venture was signed on 15 December 2016.

Slaughter and May is advising Kosmos Energy (Kosmos) on its partnership with BP in Mauritania and Senegal.  The partnership combines Kosmos’ exploration expertise with BP’s deepwater development and LNG production and marketing expertise.

Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie assisted Amundi Immobilier in obtaining their first license to launch their cross-border foreign real estate investment for private investors in Austria under the Alternative Investment Funds regime. The "OPCIMMO"  fund, managed by Amundi Immobilier was established in France in 2011. Now, it will be offered to private investors in another country for the first time.

International law firm Simmons & Simmons has worked with the Legal team of Shell International Limited (“Shell”) on a world scale petrochemical joint venture project with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (“CNOOC”) in Huizhou, southern China.

Clifford Chance advised the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on the establishment of a Hong Kong asset management joint venture company in connection with a Fund focused on projects in Central and Eastern Europe targeting €10 billion. This deal follows on from work advising ICBC on the establishment of a European investment fund which is part of China's 'One Belt One Road' initiative and was formally announced at the China and CEE Countries Summit in Riga, Latvia on 5 November 2016.

Mayer Brown announced today that it represented MAG Property Development, the real estate development arm of MAG Group and one of the largest private real estate developers in the UAE, in a strategic partnership arrangement with Delos to create the first health and wellness-inspired homes in the Middle East. The partnership will be the first-of-its-kind in the Middle East in what is expected to be a new multi-billion dollar wellness living-oriented real estate market. Delos is a pioneering wellness real estate and technology firm.