Macfarlanes has advised venture capital investor Dawn Capital on the raising of its third fund, Dawn III, which after increasing its hard cap twice, attracted commitments of £165m which makes it one of the largest venture capital funds raised in Europe in the last couple of years.

The fund which focuses on early-stage investment in fintech and Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses secured investments from UK, European and US institutional investors and notably the European Investment Fund (EIF).    

Schulte successfully represented Jeffrey Stower and Kris Beighton of KPMG in the Cayman Islands in their capacity as foreign representatives of Premium Point Master Mortgage Credit Fund Ltd. and seven of its affiliated offshore funds (collectively, the “Premium Point Entities”) in the filing of petitions under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

As technology plays an ever increasing role in political and issues-based campaigning, TLT has advised on a significant venture capital investment for Bristol-headquartered technology start-up, Poli, from UK-based technology investment funds, AI Seed and Force Over Mass.

Poli uses the reach and immediacy of social messaging platforms to improve opinion polling, recruiting larger, more representative panels and engaging with them more efficiently. It was founded in 2016 with high profile polling errors from both sides of the Atlantic fresh in the memory.

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised ING Bank (“ING”), as agent, security trustee and the syndicate of lenders on the US$252m financing of the world’s first ever LNG-powered aframax tankers for leading Russian shipowner Sovcomflot Group (“SCF”).

The six 114,000dwt, ice-class vessels are being built by Hyundai Samho, with two of the vessels to operate under time charter to Shell for up to ten years. Shell will also provide LNG fuel for all six tankers across north-west Europe and the Baltic.

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised German financial investor HQ Equita (“HQ Equita”) on the sale of MEN Holding GmbH (“MEN”) to DBAG Fund VII, advised by Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (“DBAG”). It has been agreed not to disclose the purchase price or any further details of the contractual agreements.

CMS* has advised ING, one of its key clients, in connection with a bilateral $30 million revolving facilities to Astarta group for their export operations. Astarta is one of the leaders in sugar and agricultural production and one of the biggest industrial milk producers in Ukraine ensuring its efficiency through the use of the best high technologies. The financing included $25 million pre-export revolving loan facility and $5 million multicurrency uncommitted guarantee/ letter of credit issuances revolving credit facility, both extended for a three years term.

Zurich – The main shareholders of Tec-Sem Group AG have sold their shares in Tec-Sem Group AG, headquartered in Tägerwilen, to Brooks Automation, Inc.

Brooks is a leading supplier of tool and factory hardware and software automation solutions for the global semiconductor industry.

Allen & Overy and its cooperation firm in Saudi Arabia, Khoshaim & Associates, have advised the Ministry of Finance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the USD11bn bond issuance under its Global Medium Term Note Programme. The transaction received significant interest from international investors, with the order book peaking at USD52bn.

Dentons Boekel has successfully represented Samskip in obtaining the annulment of a fine imposed by the Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).

According to the Court decision, the ACM was wrong in fining Samskip for the behavior of its former subsidiary Kloosterboer IJmuiden, because the investigation into Kloosterboer IJmuiden’s behavior was not started in time.

Casablanca—Dentons Morocco has advised Lesaffre, a global player in yeasts and fermentation, on the acquisition of a majority stake in Rayen Food Industries, a Tunisian company specializing in the production of baker’s yeast in Tunisia.