A cross-firm Addleshaw Goddard team has successfully completed Cheung Kei Group’s £270 million acquisition and financing of 5 Churchill Place in London’s Canary Wharf. JP Morgan will be the lead tenant at the property, which was purchased from Said Holdings.

The team showcased the AG spirit of innovation to get the deal done, including working with a Korean lender on the provision of mezzanine financing. A UK lender provided the senior debt.

Ashurst has advised Newcrest Mining Limited (Newcrest) on the sale of its 89.89% interest in the Bonikro gold mine in Cote d'Ivoire to a consortium consisting of subsidiaries of Forbes and Manhattan and Africa Finance Corporation in a deal worth US$81 million.

The consideration for the transaction comprises a total of US$72 million in cash consideration, and a net smelter royalty on the first 560,000 ounces of gold production from the next pushback of the Bonikro pit with an estimated value of US$9 million.

International law firm Ashurst advised BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, on its £95 million loan to Active Assistance, a care provider owned by specialist healthcare fund manager Montreux Capital.

The debt package will enable Active Assistance to finance its pipeline acquisitions for the foreseeable future, which it will seek to purchase with a mixture of equity and debt. Montreux Capital Management, which purchased Active Assistance in January, is planning to use the firm as its latest base for consolidating the UK's private healthcare sector.

Ashurst advised the syndicate banks, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft (Commerzbank) and Hauck & Aufhäuser Privatbankiers Aktiengesellschaft (Hauck & Aufhäuser) on the initial public offering (IPO) of Serviceware SE (Serviceware), a leading provider of software solutions for the digitisation and automation of service processes, on the regulated market (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The banks acted as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the transaction.

International law firm Ashurst advised OMV, the international integrated oil and gas company based in Vienna, on its US$1.5bn acquisition of a 20 per cent participating interest in the two concessions for the offshore oil fields Umm Lulu and Sateh Al Razboot (SARB) (with the satellite fields Bin Nasher and Al Bateel) and associated infrastructure in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

CMS has advised on four investment company transactions announced at the end of April:

Sequoia Economic Infrastructure
CMS has advised investment banking firm Stifel on Sequoia Economic Infrastructure’s placing for up to 72.8m shares, implying a fundraising of up to £75.7m. The placing closes on 3 May with new shares expected to start trading on 9 May.

The CMS team is being led by Corporate partners Cathy Pitt and Alasdair Steele, and Associates Philippa Chatterton and Jenny Gray.

Supermarket Income REIT

DLA Piper has advised the drinks group Conviviality in connection with the sale of its retail business, which includes the Bargain Booze and Wine Rack brands, to the grocery wholesaler Bestway. The transaction will save approximately 1,700 jobs. DLA Piper also advised on the sale of Conviviality's wholesale business to the C&C Group, a deal that closed last week saving nearly 2,000 jobs.

DLA Piper advised Boscastle Pastries and Foods on its sale to Patties, owned by Pacific Equity Partners.

Boscastle Pastries and Foods is an award-winning Australian business, producing gourmet pies, pasties and quiches for the retail and wholesale markets.

Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) is one of Australia’s leading private equity firms.

The DLA Piper team included Corporate partner and head of the firm’s Melbourne office, David Hallam, and Corporate senior associate Dylan Burke.

DLA Piper is acting as regulatory counsel representing T-Mobile US, Inc. and Deutsche Telekom, AG in the announced merger with Sprint Corporation. DLA Piper is also representing T-Mobile in CFIUS and national security matters related to the transaction.

DLA Piper is pleased to announce a significant victory before the United States Supreme Court for its client, Arab Bank, PLC. On April 24, 2018, the Court issued the landmark decision on behalf of our client, upholding the Second Circuit's ruling that corporations are not proper defendants under the Alien Tort Statute.