A Travers Smith team led by private equity partner Helen Croke advised long standing clients Silverfleet Capital, and the founder shareholders of Aesica Pharmaceuticals Limited, on the proposed sale of Aesica to Consort Medical plc for £230 million.

Established in 2004, Aesica has grown both organically and through acquisitions and is one of Europe's leading pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organisations. It currently employs approximately 1,250 people and has six pharmaceutical development and manufacturing sites in the UK, Germany and Italy.

A team led by Dr. Andreas Walle of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek in Hamburg, advised the management of Rademacher group on the sale of all corporate shares to holding companies Pinova Capital and Cross Equity. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Parts of management reassumed and newly assumed shares in the buyer. Private equity investor Nord Holding had acquired holdings in Rademacher group jointly with the management of Arcadia in 2007.

Weil is advising the Board of Directors of American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. (ARCP) in its sale of Cole Capital, ARCP’s private capital management business, to RCS Capital Corp. The total value of this transaction is expected to be at least $700 million. As part of the transaction, ARCP will be entitled to receive an additional  earn-out of up to $130 million.

On October 6, 2014, WilmerHale client Durata Therapeutics announced that it had entered into a definitive merger agreement with Actavis plc under which a subsidiary of Actavis will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Durata common stock for $23 per share in cash, or approximately $675 million in the aggregate, and contingent value rights entitling the holder to receive additional cash payments of up to $5 per share if certain regulatory or commercial milestones related to Durata's lead product DALVANCE™ are achieved.

Pinsent Masons has advised IMI plc, the FTSE 100 specialist engineering group, on the sale of Eley Limited, Eley Americas Inc. and Accles & Shelvoke Limited to LDC for an enterprise value of £42m.

Birmingham-based Eley is the world leader in the manufacture of .22LR sporting ammunition which is used in target shooting including by world class and Olympic athletes.

Stora Enso has signed an agreement to divest its Corenso business operations, part of Stora Enso Renewable Packaging Division, to the Finnish packaging materials company Powerflute Oyj. The enterprise value of the transaction is approximately EUR 90 million, and the expected all cash consideration approximately EUR 75 million. Closing of the transaction is expected to take place during the fourth quarter 2014 subject to customary conditions.

Ashurst has advised Marubeni Automotive Holding (Australia) Pty Ltd (Marubeni) in its sale of Scotts Motors Artarmon Pty Ltd (Scotts Motors) in Sydney.

Marubeni has agreed to sell its shares in Scotts Motors, which operates a new and used car dealership, to VT Holdings Co., Ltd, a company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

This transaction required our Tokyo office to help facilitate the transaction in the time available.

Slaughter and May is advising Advanstar Communications Inc., a leading U.S. media company providing integrated marketing solutions for the fashion, licensing, life sciences, and power sports industries, on the English law aspects of UBM plc's proposed acquisition of the Advanstar group for a total cash consideration of US$972 million (£599 million). UBM is a global, events-led marketing and communications services business.

UBM will finance the acquisition from the £563 million proceeds of a rights issue and a new US$100 million bridge facility.

International law firm Osborne Clarke has advised Struq, the leading advert personalisation and Cross Device Retargeting company on its acquisition by Quantcast, a technology company which specialises in real-time advertising and audience measurement.

Struq revolutionises advertising by linking fully personalized adverts across all the devices of a single consumer. Struq works with 350 of the world’s largest brands, with offices in London, New York, LA, San Francisco and Brazil.

A Travers Smith team have advised management on the acquisition by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, of a stake in UK roadside recovery group RAC. The transaction sees GIC and The Carlyle Group jointly owning a majority stake in the business with RAC management holding the remaining shares.

RAC is the second-largest roadside assistance provider in the UK and has approximately 8 million roadside members as of 30 June 2014. It has a unique heritage going back 117 years and is the UK’s most trusted automotive service brand.