Charles Russell Speechlys has advised Bahrain Middle East Bank B.S.C. (“BMB”), a wholesale bank listed on the Bahrain Bourse, in relation to the voluntary takeover bid by its largest current shareholder.

The takeover of BMB is the first takeover involving a bank in the Kingdom of Bahrain since 2014.

Ritchie Skelding, CEO at BMB, commented:

"Charles Russell Speechlys provided pragmatic, timely and accurate support on the acquisition of the bank in a complex regulatory environment without losing sight of our commercial objectives".

Houthoff Buruma advised Oerlemans Foods B.V./H2 on the sale of freshly frozen (processed) potato product business to Lamb-Weston/Meijer through a sale of all shares in Oerlemans Foods Nederland B.V. to Lamb-Weston/Meijer V.O.F.

Houthoff Buruma team included: Michiel Pannekoek , Philip van der Eijk , Joska Tempel , Sophie IJsseldijk , Jet Stolk , Marloes Brans

Schoenherr is representing Cubic (London) Limited ("Cubic") and core shareholders, including San Gabriel Privatstiftung and T.R. Privatstiftung, on the sale of their controlling stake in C-QUADRAT Investment AG ("C-QUADRAT"), to the Chinese conglomerate HNA Group (Hong Kong) Co., Limited. C-QUADRAT is an independent asset manager listed at the Vienna Stock Exchange.
 

International commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has advised on the sale of Countrywide Grounds Maintenance to The Dwyer Group, one of the world’s largest parent companies of trade service brands.

Based in Manchester, Countrywide offers commercial grass cutting, landscape maintenance, sports grounds maintenance and winter gritting services. Established by Founder Martin Stott in 1985, he and his family have grown Countrywide Grounds Maintenance from a family-owned and operated business into a system with more than 50 franchisees across the UK.

Clifford Chance Amsterdam advised J.P. Morgan Securities plc, acting as Sole Bookrunner on the offering and sale of approximately 8.7 million shares in the capital of the Euronext listed insurance and asset management company NN Group N.V. ("NN Group") by the Dutch non-profit foundation Stichting Fonds NutsOhra ("FNO") through an accelerated bookbuilding process. Following the transaction, FNO no longer has a remaining ownership interest in NN Group. The sold NN Group shares were priced at EUR 30.00, resulting in EUR 262.5 million gross proceeds for FNO.

Pentair plc announced completion of the sale of its Valves & Controls Business to Emerson Electric Co. for USD3.15 billion, subject to customary working capital adjustments.

Bär & Karrer acted as Swiss legal counsel to Pentair. The team included Ralph Malacrida, Micha Schilling, Célia Jimenez, Faton Aliu (all Corporate and M&A), Daniel Lehman (Tax), Ruth Bloch (Employment and Pensions), and Thomas Stoltz (Corporate and Notarial Services).

On 28 April 2017, Kuoni Travel Investment Ltd signed an agreement with travel provider Thomas Cook India Group to sell Kuoni's network of Destination Management Specialists (DMS) in Asia, Australia, Middle East, Africa and The Americas.

Travers Smith LLP has advised management on the sale of Source Holdings Limited, a leading independent provider of ETFs, to Invesco UK Limited.

Source is an investment firm and one of Europe’s leading Exchange Traded Product (ETP) providers. The acquisition brings additional talent and a broad array of funds that expands the choices clients have for Invesco’s active, passive and alternative capabilities.

Invesco is an independent investment management firm dedicated to delivering an investment experience that helps people get more out of life.

Bosch plans to sell its subsidiary Robert Bosch Starter Motors Generators Holding GmbH, including all subsidiaries, to the purchaser consortium ZMJ (Zhengzhou Coal Mining Machinery Group Co., Ltd.), Zhengzhou, China, and CRCI (China Renaissance Capital Investment), Hong Kong, China. 

Noerr has advised the listed venture capital company AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA on the largest exit in the company’s history to date. The SECOP Group, which has production facilities and branches worldwide, is being sold to the major Japanese group Nidec at a valuation of €185 million. At the same time, AURELIUS has proposed that the dividends to be announced in the upcoming general meeting be doubled.