King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) has advised PPTV on the acquisition of the exclusive broadcasting rights of the Spanish Soccer League (La Liga) matches in China. The deal is worth €250 million and is one of the most significant broadcasting agreements signed by La Liga in the last few years.

PPTV will control the retransmission of La Liga for the next five seasons, from 2015/16 to 2019/2020.

The transaction was led by Corporate partner Roberto Pomares.
China outbound

DLA Piper has advised Lotus Bakeries (Lotus), a Belgium biscuit and cake manufacturer, on a strategic partnership with Natural Balance Foods (NBF), a British wholefood company. The partnership, which was completed in just 4 weeks, provides Lotus with over 67% of shares in NBF from external, non-active investors. The founders have retained the majority of their shares. 

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) on the award of the project licence to Bazalgette Tunnel Limited (Bazalgette) to build, own, finance and maintain the landmark £4.2bn Thames Tideway project.

Bazalgette is a consortium of investors comprising Allianz, Dalmore Capital Limited, DIF, and Amber Infrastructure Group. Following a competitive tender process, Bazalgette was announced as the infrastructure provider for the project on July 14, 2015.

Peter Hall, partner, Norton Rose Fulbright comments:

Dentons, in cooperation with the Korean law firm Yulchon, represented the Korean company GS Home Shopping on the creation of the Big Universal Mall TV shopping channel together with Rostelecom.

The preapproved joint investments of the parties in the creation and development of the shopping channel and the necessary infrastructure for the operation thereof will amount to US$20 million (US$12 million from Rostelecom, and US$8 million from GS Home Shopping).

DLA Piper advised The Coca-Cola Company in an investment and distribution partnership with Suja Juice, an organic, cold-pressured and hand-crafted beverage company.

Suja Juice, founded in 2011 and based in San Diego, ranked second on Forbes 2015 “America’s Most Promising Companies” list. Coca-Cola's minority investment will increase Suja’s availability, as Coca-Cola will begin distributing Suja through the Odwalla chilled direct store delivery system. Additionally, the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs has made a minority investment in Suja.

Schoenherr advised EVO Payments International (EVO) on the launch of a strategic alliance with Raiffeisenbank a.s. in the Czech Republic in the segment of payment card acceptance. As a result of the partnership, all acquiring related services and responsibilities will transfer to a newly founded Czech subsidiary of EVO, “REVO”. The transaction, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close at the beginning of 2016.

Alligator Bioscience AB, a privately held Swedish biotech company developing immune-oncology antibodies for directed immunotherapy of cancer, has entered into a definitive agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Janssen). Under the agreement, Janssen, will be granted an exclusive, worldwide license to Alligator Bioscience AB's clinical candidate ADC-1013 that currently is in Phase I clinical trials.

Sidley advised Cairn Capital Group in its strategic partnership with Mediobanca in which Mediobanca will acquire a majority interest in the London-based, credit asset management and advisory firm. Under the terms of the transaction, Mediobanca will acquire 51 percent. of the share capital of Cairn Capital on completion. The majority will be purchased from Cairn Capital’s institutional shareholders and following which The Royal Bank of Scotland will have no remaining interest.

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Nexter Systems, two of Europe’s leading manufacturers of military land defence systems, signed a joint venture agreement in Paris in front of Mr. Le Drian, French Minister of Defence and Mr. Grübel, German State Secretary of Defence. The business combination will be structured through a newly incorporated Dutch N.V. in which both the Wegmann Family and the French State will (indirectly) hold 50% of the shares.

King & Wood Mallesons has advised the AA, the UK’s largest breakdown cover organisation, in connection with the establishment of a roadside assistance joint venture with TVS Automobile Solutions Limited in India.

With approximately four million members and nine million B2B customers, the AA represents over 40 per cent of the UK’s roadside assistance market. The AA will take a 49% share of the joint venture, giving the AA the opportunity to leverage this operational expertise and its strong relationships with car manufacturers through TVS's network.