Dentons has advised Southampton City Council on the procurement of a development partner and the signing of a development agreement for the £400 million development of the Royal Pier Waterfront. The parties to the agreement include the three main landowners, the council, Associated British Ports and The Crown Estate Commissioners, and RPW (Southampton) Limited (a joint venture company owned by the selected development partner Morgan Sindall Investments Limited (MSIL) and their funders The Lucent Group (Lucent)).

Linklaters has advised Standard Chartered in the negotiation of a joint venture agreement with ENSA - Seguros de Angola, S.A. (ENSA) for the banking business in Angola. 

ENSA is an insurance company owned by the Angolan state and a market leader in the Angolan insurance sector. Standard Chartered and ENSA incorporated a new bank in Angola named Standard Chartered Bank Angola, S.A. (SCBA), in which Standard Chartered holds 60% of the share capital and ENSA the remaining 40%.

DLA Piper has advised one of Australia’s largest real estate owners and managers, Investa Property Group, on its acquisition of a 50 percent stake in the iconic Piccadilly Centre in Sydney's CBD for AU$194.25 million.

The transaction will see Investa manage the office component of 133 Castlereagh Street, comprising a 32-storey A-grade office tower and neighbouring B-grade office tower, with ASX-listed Stockland Group managing the two storey retail shopping centre.

Dentons has advised Virgin Atlantic Airways in relation to a five-year extension of its credit card partnering arrangement with MBNA. Through the deal, MBNA will continue as the issuer of the Virgin Atlantic branded "White" and "Black" credit cards which were developed for Virgin Atlantic customers as part of the airline's customer loyalty scheme. Customers who spend on these cards earn customer miles and other bonuses.

The deal means that the Virgin Atlantic and MBNA's partnership, which began in 2006, will now last until at least the end of 2018.

Hogan Lovells has successfully advised Paris-headquartered EuropaCorp, a top-tier European film studio, on the formation of a U.S. joint venture with Beverly Hills-based Relativity Media.

Slaughter and May, Hong Kong, is advising China's second largest automaker, Dongfeng Motor Group Company Limited (Dongfeng) on its subscription for shares in Peugeot S.A. (Peugeot) for approximately EUR 800 million (US$1.1 billion), and its further strategic partnership with Peugeot to enhance their collaboration in research and development and to establish a new joint venture to drive PSA Peugeot Citroën and Dongfeng vehicle sales in the rest of Asia. This will be the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese automaker since 2010.

DLA Piper today announces that it advised Fosun International on its RMB210,500,000 investment in, and strategic partnership with food and beverage chain Secret Recipe, to become the second largest shareholder of Malaysia's well-known restaurant chain.

Watson, Farley & Williams has advised Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (”CIP“) in relation to its joint venture with TenneT Holding B.V. (”TenneT“) regarding the offshore grid connection DolWin3, which will transmit wind energy from the North Sea to German customers.

DolWin3 will transmit electricity to the mainland from a number of wind farms in the German North Sea and is expected to be completed in 2017. The transmission system will have a total capacity of 900 MW.

National business law firm DWF has advised Umbro, the iconic British football brand, on its new five-year technical kit and sportswear partnership with Everton Football Club.

The partnership, which officially commences on 1 June 2014, will see Everton wear the famous double diamond of Umbro from the start of the 2014/15 season.

Umbro will produce all on-pitch and training products for the men's, women's and academy teams at Everton and will also sponsor the club's grassroots programmes.

Wragge & Co's Life Sciences team has brokered an innovative licensing agreement between AstraZeneca and a partnership of Belgian life sciences research institutes: the Biotechnology Institute VIB, CD3 and KU Leuven. The deal will see AstraZeneca in-license certain novel molecules from VIB/CD3 and collaborate with academics to explore promising new insights into treatments for inflammatory and cancer diseases.