International law firm Bird & Bird today builds its Intellectual Property practice with the appointment of Tech & Comms expert, Pawel Lipski, as a partner in Warsaw.

Pawel has 13 years of experience advising on IP matters and issues around new technologies as well as matters relating to internet, data protection, consumer, advertising and contract law.  He represents technology companies in criminal and civil proceedings regarding the infringement of intellectual property rights and advises startups on legal compliance within their business models.

International law firm Gowling WLG has advised on the first Greenfield project financing and development in Armenia.

The firm's Energy Team advised sponsors Renco SpA and Siemens Project Ventures on US$260 million, 240MW Combined Cycle Gas Fire power station.

In addition to the construction, operation and maintenance of the plant, located in Yerevan, the team advised on all project financing aspects of senior debt being provided by the International Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank, DEG, KFW and OFID.

Eversheds Sutherland is pleased to announce that it represented Cox Enterprises on their agreement with funds managed by Apollo Global Management, LLC (Apollo) to buy a majority interest in Cox Media Group's broadcast television stations, including the company's radio, newspaper and TV properties in Ohio.

Cox Enterprises will maintain a minority stake and will join Apollo in forming a new company to operate these stations, which will be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

DLA Piper has advised one of the world’s leading hotel companies, the InterContinental Hotels Group ("IHG"), on a EUR 60 million investment in InterContinental Berlin. The funding, delivered with Union Investment, will be used modernise the hotel, bolster its profitability and protect the long-term value of the building.

Berlin – Valor Real Estate Partners LLP, a pan-European logistics real estate investor, has acquired a logistics complex with a total area of more than 16,000 square metres in the port of Neuss. The property comprises two distribution warehouses close to a major network of motorways, railway lines and waterways. The location offers tenants a direct link to the neighbouring city of Düsseldorf and the densely populated Rhine-Ruhr conurbation.

Clifford Chance Amsterdam has advised MarketAxess in the establishment of its EU hub in Amsterdam. MarketAxess has now received all regulatory approvals from the Dutch regulators to operate its Amsterdam based Multilateral Trading Facility and Data Reporting Service Provider. MarketAxess will provide its services to EU clients out of Amsterdam -  which include its unique Open Trading all-to-all trading platform, which will give clients easy access to a broad pool of cross-border liquidity post-Brexit.

Charles Russell Speechlys has advised longstanding client, the Civica Group, an investee company of Partners Group and market leader in business-critical software, digital solutions and managed services, on its latest acquisition of specialist SaaS provider, TranSend Solutions Limited.

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Icade on its tender offer on three Euronext Paris-listed outstanding bond issues maturing 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Icade is an integrated real estate investor and developer with a portfolio value of €11.3 billion as of December 31, 2018. Its shares are admitted to trading on the regulated market of Euronext Paris.

The tender offer ended on February 27, 2019 and the total amount of bonds repurchased amounts to €156.5 million. HSBC Bank plc and Societe Generale acted as dealer managers.

The acquisition will expand Shell's offering of residential smart energy storage and energy services

Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie has advised Shell's New Energies division (Shell) on its agreements to acquire 100% of sonnen, a leader in smart energy storage systems and innovative energy services for households.  The deal, which was announced on 15 February 2019 and was subject to regulatory approvals, closed earlier today.

CMS has assisted OTP Bank Group (OTP) on the next step of its strategic expansion in Southeast Europe by advising on the acquisition of 90.56% of Societe Generale (SG) Group's Montenegrin unit. With a market share of 11.5%, Societe Generale Banka Montenegro is the fourth largest bank in Montenegro. The transaction is expected to close in the coming months pending regulatory and merger clearance approvals.

So far, CMS has advised on the acquisition of SG's Bulgarian, Albanian, Croatian, Serbian and Moldovan subsidiaries, with a collective transaction value of over EU1.2bn.