International law firm Pinsent Masons LLP has advised Livingbridge and management on the sale of Key Travel through a secondary buyout to Elysian Capital.

Key Travel is the leading travel management company dedicated to the humanitarian, faith and academic sectors. Currently operating in 54 countries worldwide, with over 1,900 clients, Key Travel provides travel and risk management services to clients such as WWF and ActionAid, along with 40% of the top 24 research-based universities in the UK including Oxford, Cambridge and King’s College London.

CMS is advising Generali, one of the world's largest insurance groups, on the acquisition of entities from the Concordia Ubezpieczenia group. Under the concluded preliminary agreements, the Generali Group (through Generali CEE Holding B.V. and Generali Zycie Towarzystwo Ubezpieczen S.A.) intends to take full control over Concordia Capital SA, a Polish insurance company that offers life insurance, and Concordia Polska TUW, which offers non-life insurance.

Frankfurt/Main – Listed US company Coherent, Inc., one of the world’s leading providers of lasers and laser-based technology for scientific, commercial and industrial customers, has acquired O.R. Lasertechnologie GmbH of Germany, a producer of tools for laser additive manufacturing.

Cravath represented Premier Foods Finance plc in connection with its £300 million Reg. S high-yield senior secured notes offering, guaranteed by Premier Foods plc and certain of its subsidiaries. Premier Foods is one of the United Kingdom's largest food producers, engaging in the manufacture, distribution and sale of a wide range of branded and non-branded food products. The notes will be listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. The transaction closed on June 4, 2018.

Orrick has announced that Sarah Zeng has joined the firm’s M&A and private equity practice, resident in Beijing. Sarah has over 25 years of corporate law experience serving Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and U.S. multinational companies. Most recently, she served as Managing Partner of Denton’s Beijing office.

DLA Piper has appointed project finance lawyer, Rob Harker, as a partner in its Middle East Finance and Projects practice, based in Dubai. Rob joins the firm from Bracewell, where he was a partner since 2014.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (‘Freshfields’) has announced the addition of a respected patent litigation team in London. The team, which consists of partner Dr Christopher Stothers, counsel Ms Laura Whiting, and associates Mr Paul Abbott and Ms Ammina Rao, join together from Arnold & Porter and will work closely alongside the firm’s established patent litigation teams in Germany and the Netherlands. Their appointments will strengthen the firm’s global intellectual property group and build on the firm’s offering within the technology and pharmaceutical sectors.

Dechert LLP has added prominent partner Will Cejudo to the ranks of its international and domestic tax group. Based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, Cejudo further bolsters Dechert’s leading global tax practice.

International law firm Ashurst announces the appointment of Jonathan Walsh as a securitisation partner in the London global markets practice.

International legal business DWF has appointed insurance partner Iftikhar Ali to its London office where he will specialise in construction, power and engineering claims. Iftikhar joins from Simmons & Simmons where he led the construction all risks practice.