De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is advising FrieslandCampina on its joint venture in China with Huishan Dairy. The joint venture will be the first between a Chinese and a non-Chinese dairy company that will locally manufacture, market and distribute infant milk formula products in China. Each company will own 50 percent of the shares in the Hong Kong holding company.
Hogan Lovells advised longstanding client 21st Century Fox on a joint venture with Apollo to create a leading global multi-platform content provider, bringing together Endemol, Shine Group, and Core Media.
Under the terms of the agreement, 21st Century Fox and Apollo will jointly manage the newly created group, with each owning 50 per cent. The group’s businesses will have creative operations in over 30 markets, with a diverse portfolio of over 600 formats, both scripted and non-scripted, coupled with digital, gaming, and distribution operations.
Slaughter and May is advising GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on its strategic collaboration with the Aspen Group (Aspen) in Japan. The transaction involves GSK and Aspen contributing certain branded products and capital to the collaboration. GSK will also contribute to the collaboration the right to commercialise authorised generic versions of a number of its products once the exclusivity period for those products has expired. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2015.
AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) have announced an agreement to jointly develop and commercialise AZD3293, an oral beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor currently in development as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
Norton Rose Fulbright Johannesburg helped Granite Central Securities Depository (Pty) Ltd (Granite) with an application for a Central Securities Depository licence (CSD Licence), in terms of section 27 of the Financial Markets Act, 2013 (FMA). A CSD provides an infrastructure for holding uncertificated securities, entries in respect of uncertificated securities, and a securities settlement system.
Fieldfisher acted for Scandinavia's AB Svensk Filmindustri on its strategic alliance with Studiocanal. Svensk Filmindustri was founded in 1919. Being one of the oldest and most respected film companies in the world, Svensk has earned a well-deserved reputation for producing some of the best-known films and filmmakers in the history of cinema.
Global legal practice Norton Rose Fulbright has advised German paragon AG on its joint venture for car electronics and sensor production and distribution with Chinese Jiangsu Riying Electronics Co., Ltd. (R&Y). The international team handled both German and P.R.C. matters in its formation of a 65 percent (paragon AG) – 35 percent (R&Y) joint venture.
Norton Rose Fulbright has advised the Washington DC-based news organisation POLITICO in its entry into the European market. The team handled both US tax and European corporate and tax matters in its formation of a 50-50 joint venture to start a European version of POLITICO with German publisher, Axel Springer. The new digital political media offering should provide in-depth coverage of European politics and policy.
The venture, announced on September 9, will involve significant investments by both companies. The new media company will be headquartered in Brussels.
Dechert LLP represented Allergopharma, the Merck Business Unit Allergy, in its recently announced exclusive licensing agreement with S-TARget therapeutics (S-Target), an Austrian biotechnology company which develops therapeutic preparations for all forms of allergies. The focus of this cooperative agreement is the use of S-TARget S-TIR™ technology and the associated development of a new generation of products for the casual treatment of allergies. Terms of the agreement and financial details are confidential.
Eversheds has advised the Cell Therapy Catapult on an innovative partnership with UCL Business (UCLB) and Imperial Innovations for the advancement of a novel cell therapy approach to treat acute myeloid leukaemia.