Ashurst advised a consortium comprising Borealis Infrastructure and First State Investments, together with Finnish institutional investors Keva and LocalTapiola Pension, on the €2.55 billion agreement to acquire 100% of the Finnish electricity distribution business, Fortum Distribution Finland ("FDF"), from the Fortum Group. FDF is the owner of the largest electricity distribution network in Finland, with over 600,000 customers across the country, representing more than 20% market share.

DLA Piper has advised Europe Virgin Fund (EVF), a private equity fund sponsored by Dragon Capital, in the acquisition of the majority stake in Portmone.com, the leading Ukrainian system of online payments.

The DLA Piper team was led by Illya Muchnyk (legal director) and Margarita Karpenko (managing partner of DLA Piper in Ukraine). Associates Dmytro Pshenychnyuk (Finance & Projects) and Dmytro Tkachenko (Corporate) assisted on the transaction.

Clifford Chance has advised EQT Partners Asia Ltd. ("EQT") on its leveraged majority buyout of China F&B Group.

China F&B Group operates the franchise of two renowned international chains, Dairy Queen and Papa John's Pizza in the PRC. They are respectively the largest ice cream restaurant chain and the second largest pizza restaurant chain in China.

Mills & Reeve acted for FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS) (NASDAQ:FDS) on its strategic acquisition of a majority stake in Matrix-Data Limited, with the right to acquire the remainder of the company.

Ashurst advised BlueFocus Communications Group Co., Ltd ("BlueFocus") on its acquisition of a majority stake in We Are Very Social Limited ("We Are Social"). We Are Social is the world's largest specialist social media agency network with offices in London, New York, Paris, Milan, Munich, Singapore, Sydney and São Paulo. BlueFocus is China's largest marketing services group and is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. We Are Social will become BlueFocus' primary digital agency brand outside of China and will provide BlueFocus with a platform for significant growth in digital revenues.

Ashurst advised Babcock Integrated Technology Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Babcock International Group PLC, the UK's leading engineering support services company, on its acquisition of the entire issued share capital in Context Information Security Limited for £28 million plus deferred consideration of £4 million payable in 2016.  The acquisition was completed on 16 December 2013.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised AerCap, one of the world’s leading aircraft leasing companies, in relation to its acquisition of ILFC from AIG. Freshfields acted as lead aviation counsel and lead anti-trust counsel to AerCap on the transaction.

A Travers Smith team led by corporate partner Helen Croke has advised Bridgepoint Development Capital on its acquisition of Quotient Clinical Limited and the associated equity arrangements.

Employing over 200 people, Quotient Clinical  specialises in early clinical development and has developed a platform which offers an integrated approach to formulation development, “real-time” drug product manufacturing and clinical testing. Using this platform has been proven to significantly reduce the time and cost of the early stage drug development process.

DLA Piper has advised Arsenal Capital Partners and Chromaflo Technologies on the acquisition of CPS Color. A global supplier of pigment and chemical dispersions, Chromaflo Technologies and integrated tinting specialist CPS Color's colorant business will combine to create one of the leading independent global colorant system and pigment dispersion platforms worldwide. The new colorants and dispersions specialist will operate under the name Chromaflo Technologies.

A Travers Smith team, led by Private Equity partner James Renahan, has advised Equistone Partners Europe on the simultaneous acquisition of MDNX Group and Easynet. The combination of MDNX and Easynet will create the largest independent network and hosting integrator in Europe with the merged operations operating under the Easynet brand going forward. As part of the deal, LDC and MDNX management have also acquired a stake in the combined business.