Hogan Lovells advised KBR, Inc., a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life cycle within the Government Services and Hydrocarbons sectors, in its US$355 million acquisition, through its subsidiary KBRwyle Technology Solutions, LLC, of SGT, Inc., a leading provider of award-winning, high-value engineering, mission operations, scientific, and IT service solutions to a wide array of federal government agencies nationwide.

Orrick advised on the first acquisition of a German company by Chinese investors under Germany’s new China-focused foreign trade legislation.

The acquisition of a controlling stake in COTESA GmbH, a leading manufacturer of fiber composite parts with 600 employees, by Changzhou QFAT Composite Material attracted great attention when it was agreed upon in the autumn of 2017.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (‘Freshfields’) has advised international private equity firm Cinven on its agreement to acquire Partner in Pet Food (‘PPF’), a leading European pet food manufacturer, for an undisclosed amount.

Ashurst is advising SKG Financial Holdings (Pte) Limited, a member of the GFG Alliance, on its acquisition of Diamond Bank (UK) Plc from Nigeria’s Diamond Bank plc.

GFG Alliance group, led by British Industrialist Sanjeev Gupta, has grown into one of the UK’s largest privately owned industrial businesses.

International law firm Ashurst advised American Securities on the Belgian law aspects of its acquisition of Prince from Palladium Equity Partners.

Based in New York with an office in Shanghai, American Securities is a leading U.S. private equity firm that invests in market-leading North American companies with annual revenues generally ranging from $200 million to $2 billion and/or $50 million to $250 million of EBITDA.

International law firm CMS has advised global private equity firm Cinven on its acquisition of Partner in Pet Food (‘PPF’), a leading European pet food manufacturer, from Pamplona Capital Management.

Headquartered in Hungary, PPF is a market-leading pet food manufacturer with nine manufacturing operations across Europe. PPF supplies pet food to more than 250 customers in Europe, including traditional retailers, discounters, speciality pet retailers and online specialists.

Taylor Wessing has advised D F Barnes, part of one of Canada’s largest industrial construction businesses, on its acquisition of the entire share capital of Burntisland Fabrications Limited (“BiFab”).

The acqusition will also come with new investment to support BiFab’s yards at Methil and Burntisland in Fife and Arnish in the Western Isles. The Scottish Government has taken a minority interest in BiFab as part of this transaction.

Corporate partner Robert Fenner, who led the transaction said:

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance advised LDC (China) Trading Company Limited (LDC China), a subsidiary of Louis Dreyfus Company, on its acquisition of Sinarmas Natural Resources Foodstuff Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., which owns and operates oilseeds crushing and refining facilities in the Lingang Economic Area within Tianjin’s Binhai New Area district.

Eversheds Sutherland has advised Welbilt (NYSE:WBT), a Tampa Bay, Florida-based provider of commercial foodservice equipment, has agreed to buy Crem, a professional coffee machine maker.

Welbilt, Inc., a leading global provider of commercial foodservice equipment, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares of Crem International, which is majority owned by private equity firms Priveq Investment Fund IV L.P. and SEB Venture Capital, for total consideration of SEK 1,800m, or USD 224m.

Cooley advised Pizza Hut Restaurants UK and its senior leadership team, led by CEO Jens Hofma, on the management buyout of the business from Rutland Partners, a UK private equity firm. Cooley’s team was led by private equity partner Stephen Rosen and finance partner John Clark.

The MBO is backed by Pricoa Capital Group, the international private capital investment arm of PGIM.