Leading national law firm Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth has recruited a new partner to its London family and divorce law team.

Toby Hales joins the top national team from Seddons. A highly experienced solicitor and talented litigator who has had a number of high-profile cases before the Court of Appeal, Toby is a specialist in international children cases and arrangements between parents for children. He also has expertise in handling high-value matrimonial finance matters and relationship breakdown cases.

The international law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills, has announced that Pauline Bournoville will be joining its Paris office as a partner within its finance practice. Pauline's arrival will help strengthen the firm's finance team with the addition of her expertise in restructuring. Pauling will closely work with Paris and EMEA finance, projects, disputes and corporate teams.

A cross-border team from Baker McKenzie recently advised the Singapore arm of the global solar firm REC on the SGD 585 million sale and leaseback of its 25-hectare industrial site in the Tuas South region of Singapore to Australia-based Logos Property. The site accommodates an integrated industrial and warehouse facility with a total gross floor area of 1.6 million square feet. The transaction is said to be the largest single-asset industrial deal completed in Singapore in 2018.

Katten and Katten UK assisted FinTech company Capify in its efforts to secure a multimillion-pound credit facility from Goldman Sachs to support Capify's growth in the UK and Australian markets. Capify is an online lending platform specializing in merchant cash advances (MCA) for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

Addleshaw Goddard's Real Estate sector team has advised Galliard Homes on the unconditional purchase from Royal Mail of  a 0.9 acre plot (Plot C) on its Nine Elms Park site.

Royal Mail's former South London mail centre site in Vauxhall, South London – now known as Nine Elms Park – is centred on a linear park, which runs the length of the site east to west, alongside residential-led development and commercial space. It extends from the new US Embassy to the planned Northern Line extension, which will provide two stations within walking distance.

Clifford Chance represented the lenders – Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), Banco de Inversión y Comercio Exterior S.A. (BICE) and Banco de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires – in the financing of the 100.1 MWp PV plant being developed by Canadian Solar in the Province of Salta, Argentina. The Cafayate project was awarded during RenovAr 1.5, the second clean energy auction arranged by the Argentine government to promote the use of renewable energy in the country. It is the first solar project developed in the Province of Salta.

Cologne – Axion Holding GmbH, a Hamburg-based specialist in advising on, operating and managing properties for senior citizens, has sold seven existing care homes to three companies belonging to the Orpea Group of France. In addition, the Orpea Group will operate a joint venture for premium residential retirement accommodation together with Axion founder Nikolaos Tavridis.

Cologne – 1st FC Cologne and Daimler AG have jointly acquired shares in Cologne-based e-sports company SK Gaming, with founder Alexander Müller remaining a shareholder.

A CMS team headed by lead partner Dr Hendrik Schindler advised 1st FC Cologne on concluding the purchase agreement and designing the future corporate governance structure of SK Gaming. The football club is a longstanding CMS client in the area of intellectual property as well as contract and association law. This is the first time the club has instructed CMS to advise on an M&A transaction.

Netgroup A/S was established in 2001 and is a Danish hosting and cloud service provider, which mainly conducts business within IT outsourcing, hosting services and managed cloud services.

With Sentia Group’s acquisition of Netgroup A/S, Sentia Group has strengthened its cloud-first strategy and growing presence in Denmark and the Nordics, giving its business a combined power of more than DKK 400 million in Danish revenue and a customer and employee presence of 180 skilled people.

DWF's Debt Capital Markets team has advised Linklease Finance Plc in its capacity as issuer on its US$500,000,000 Medium Term Note bond program.

The first 2018 series of Bonds for an amount of US$50,000,000 was issued by Linklease on 20 December.

The Bonds are listed on the Frankfurt exchange with a rating of A(sf) (ind) from ARC Ratings.