Siemens and Mitsubishi have entered into a joint venture agreement. Under the terms of this agreement, Mitsubishi will hold a 51% stake in the joint venture while Siemens will hold the remaining 49% stake. Subject to approval by the competent authorities, the joint venture is expected to start operations in January 2015. Siemens and Mitsubishi plan to co-operate in the field of metallurgical industry and will form a globally-operating full-range supplier of facilities, products and services for the iron, steel and aluminium industry.

A multi-disciplinary team from Clifford Chance has advised long-standing client Helical Bar plc on the development joint venture and forward funding with Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) of Creechurch Place and associated arrangements with the City of London Corporation.

Creechurch Place, formerly known as One Mitre Square, is to be developed into 271,000 sq ft of Category ‘A’ office space and 2,000 sq ft of retail space in the City of London.

Dentons has advised its longstanding client the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on its partnership with News UK for the exploitation of its clips rights and News UK's role as "Official Media Partner of the ECB".

King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin has advised longstanding client British Land in supporting Blackstone’s disposal of its 50% interest in the flagship Broadgate development in conjunction with establishing a new joint venture between British Land and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC).

The deal involving Broadgate, a 30 acre City of London office campus, is one of the highest profile corporate real estate transactions ever seen and is GIC’s largest real estate investment in Europe to date.

Slaughter and May is advising GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on its major three-part interconditional transaction with Novartis announced on 22 April 2014. The transaction involves:

  * GSK and Novartis combining their respective Consumer Healthcare businesses to form a new world-leading Consumer Healthcare business. GSK will have majority control with an equity interest of 63.5%

Linklaters has advised Noble Group Limited (“Noble Group”) on the acquisition of 51% of Noble Agri Limited (“Noble Agri”) by COFCO Corporation (“COFCO”) to establish a 51%/49% joint venture. 

Noble Agri will become the principal international origination platform for COFCO, with its upstream origination and trading operations linked to the downstream processing and distribution capabilities of COFCO and its affiliates in China to create a fully integrated value chain, consistent with COFCO’s strategy.

Baker & McKenzie recently advised Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ("CPPIB") on its new venture with China Vanke Co., Ltd. ("China Vanke"), the largest residential developer in China. Through this venture, CPPIB will over time invest USD250 million in the Chinese residential market.

To seed the venture, CPPIB and China Vanke are investing in a project located in Qingdao, Shandong Province in China. The venture will focus on new residential development projects in large cities across China.

King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin is advising tidal developer Alderney Renewable Energy Limited (ARE) on the new joint venture for the development of a 300MW tidal array in the Alderney race.  The joint venture is with leading tidal turbine developer OpenHydro, a subsidiary of DCNS, the French manufacturing group, which is constructing a new plant in Cherbourg to make the tidal turbines.  The joint venture agreement was signed and announced in Cherbourg in early April.

Slaughter and May advised ITV plc (ITV) on the terms of a partnership with the Trustee of the main section of the ITV Pension Scheme (the Scheme). As a consequence, ITV's pension deficit on a funding basis is reduced by £50 million. The partnership arrangements are backed by the London Television Centre, which shall continue to be owned by ITV.

Eversheds has advised property developer Urban Splash on a £135m refinancing deal and a new joint venture agreement with The Pears Group.

Urban Splash, working in partnership with The Pears Group, has agreed to refinance £135m of its remaining debt from the RBS, CoOp, HSBC and Blackstone and formed a new joint venture with Pears.

The new joint venture will initially fund the Urban Splash Braun portfolio, which consists of 35 properties including; Fort Dunlop in Birmingham, the Matchworks in Liverpool and Smithfield Buildings in Manchester.