Nabarro is advising Fixnetix Limited, the leading provider of front office managed trading solutions in banking and capital markets, on its conditional sale to NYSE-listed Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), a global leader of next-generation information technology (IT) services and solutions.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is advising Pearson on the sale of its 50% stake in The Economist group for a total consideration of £469 million
Linklaters has advised The Economist Newspaper on the sale by Pearson plc of its 50% stake in The Economist Group.
Under the deal, worth £469m, The Economist Group has agreed to repurchase 22% of its ordinary shares for £182m. The remaining shares have been bought by the Italian investment fund Exor - the investment vehicle of the Agnelli family, the owners of Fiat – for £287m.
The deal is expected to complete by the end of 2015, subject to approval of The Economist’s shareholders and independent trustees.
Reed Smith has advised UK-based IT solutions provider the Kelway Group (Kelway) and its majority shareholders in relation to the disposal of the remaining 65% of Kelway to CDW Corporation (CDW).
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented Axel Springer SE on the sale of its entire 50.1 percent shareholding in runtastic GmbH, an Austrian internet company founded in 2009. Concurrently, the remaining investors, including the founders and management team of runtastic, also sold their participations to the adidas group, which now holds 100 percent of all shares of runtastic. The entire transaction was concluded at a EUR 220 million enterprise value basis.
Macfarlanes has advised on the sale of the Kew Green Hotels group, the owner and operator of over 50 hotels and the largest Holiday Inn franchisee in Europe, to HK CTS Metropark Hotels Co Ltd, a Chinese travel and leisure group.
The Macfarlanes team included Alex Edmondson and Ian Martin, corporate partners, Jat Bains, a finance partner, Charles Horsfield, a real estate partner and James McCredie, a tax partner.
Osborne Clarke has advised Wealth Wizards, an innovative algorithm-based financial advice platform, on its majority stake buyout by retirement specialist LV=. The Osborne Clarke team was led by corporate Partner Rob Wood and corporate Associate, Mike Freer.
Osborne Clarke has advised digital agency AKOM360 GmbH on the takeover by media communication agency Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG). AKOM360 headquartered in Munich with further branches in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Hamburg provides comprehensive digital marketing services amongst others in the area mobile marketing, app-development, SEO und social media.
Linklaters advised the private equity firm Terra Firma and the infrastructure investment business of Deutsche Bank, RREEF, supervised by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (Deutsche AWM), on the sale of Germany’s leading motorway service operator Tank & Rast. The purchaser is a consortium consisting of Allianz Capital Partners GmbH (ACP), Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc., Infinity Investments SA (a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority) and the asset manager MEAG.
Cleanwood First Ltd. has acquired from the Swiss private equity company Invision its participation in Boost Holding Ltd. Cleanwood First Ltd. is an investment vehicle of the entrepreneur Michael Reinwald. The Boost Group is a leading provider of point-of-sale marketing services and loyalty programs with 260 employees, activities in sixteen countries and yearly revenues of more than EUR 100 m.