National law firm Shoosmiths has advised long standing clients Octopus Investments on its multi-million pound funding into office catering company City Pantry.

Octopus Investments, part of the Octopus Group, has led a £4 million Series A funding round into the London-based company to fund its expansion into other cities in the UK over the next 18 months, as well as continuing the its triple digit growth in London. Existing investors, and investment firm Newable Private Investing, also participated in the funding round.

Travers Smith LLP has advised new client Inflexion on its minority investment in Huws Gray Limited (Huws Gray), one of the largest independent builders merchants in the UK.

The Travers Smith team was led by Private Equity Partners Lucie Cawood and Will Yates who were supported by Private Equity Associates Katie McGarry, Lauren Causon, Max Conway and James Sherlock. Tax advice was provided by Head of Tax Simon Skinner who was supported by Tax Associates Angela Tang and Thomas Margesson.

Ashurst has advised Blackstone on its A$508 million acquisition of the ASX listed AMA Group Limited (AMA). Ashurst also advised Blackstone on the debt facilities put in place to finance the proposed acquisition.

Ashurst LLP advised M&G Real Estate on the acquisition and financing of the Greenwalk property located in Suresnes, France, worth €126.5m. This property, developing a useable surface area of circa 22,500 sq.m. host notably the headquarters of Philips France and Direct Assurances. It has been purchased by M&G Real Estate from a joint-venture formed by Norges Bank REM and AXA France. The acquisition was partly financed by Bayern LB.

Clifford Chance has advised private equity firm 3i on its investment in Royal Sanders, a leading European private label and contract manufacturing producer of personal care products with plants in the Netherlands (Vlijmen) and in the UK (Preston). 3i is investing alongside management to drive the company’s international growth strategy. The business is being purchased from Dutch private equity firm, Egeria. Royal Sanders’ main product categories include shampoo, bath and shower gels, body lotions and hand wash and its key geographies are the Benelux, Germany and UK.

Beijing/Sydney: Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised China Jianyin Investment Limited, JIC Huawen Investment Limited and Tamar Alliance Capital (the Consortium) on the acquisition of a majority stake in Australia's leading vitamins and supplements business, Nature's Care. Nature's Care owns leading brands such as Healthy Care, Nature’s Care Pro Series, Royal, Vitamore, VitAustralia, Leimei and Mei Mei Organic. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second half of 2018.

DLA Piper has advised the Israeli insurance company and pension manager, Migdal, on its acquisition of three light industrial properties in Germany from ThreadGreen Industrial for €55.7 million. Migdal completed the acquisition in association with Cording Real Estate Group, a German, UK and Benelux real estate investment and asset management firm.

The transaction was concluded through only equity investment, without leverage. Migdal invested approximately 95 percent of the equity and Cording together with the Edmond de Rothschild Group invested approximately 5 percent.

DLA Piper represented New York-based Silverpeak in its US$132 million acquisition of oil and gas assets in Utah’s Uinta Basin from LINN Energy, Inc. The assets will be managed by Altamont Energy, a recently formed affiliate of Silverpeak. The assets are composed of roughly 36,000 net acres, including 27,000 undeveloped acres, 116 PDP (Proved Developed Producing) wells with significant reserves, work-over and development opportunities.

We acted as an advisor for Kaiku Health (previously NetMedi Oy) and its shareholders when NetMedi organised an investment round to expand its international operations and continue the development of its digital therapeutics pipeline. As a result, Kaiku Health closed a €4.4 million funding round. The investment was led by Debiopharm Innovation Fund SA and Tesi, with the participation of existing investors.

An Orrick Paris team advised Alan, Europe’s first digital health insurance company, in its €23 million series A financing – the most ever raised by a French Insurtech company. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation by Open CNP, Partech, p3VC and Xavier Niel. This series A follows a $12 million seed round closed at the end of 2016; the company was founded earlier that year.