On 29 December 2017, advised by King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Beijing Baidu Netcom Science Technology Co., Ltd. (collectively “Baidu” ) achieved its first success in the first instance over a series of high-profile patent infringement litigation cases regarding input method (the “Case”) in Shanghai Intellectual Property Court.

Munich - Frankfurt Stock Exchange listed KPS AG acquires Infront Consulting & Management GmbH, Hamburg. Taylor Wessing has been advising Munich based KPS AG as buyer in this transaction. KPS is a consulting specialist for business transformation and process optimisation and counts to the leading consulting companies in this field in Europe. Infront is a leading consulting boutique for digital strategy and transformation in the German-speaking countries. The parties agreed not to reveal the purchase price. The transaction is closed.
Legal advisor KPS AG

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Blue Horizon Partners and Blue Horizon Advisors (together "Blue Horizon") on the recent establishment of Blue Horizon Investors, a strategic real estate investment group; Blue Horizon Opportunities LP, a private venture capital fund; and Blue Horizon Pi Partners LP, a private equity fund.

Shearman & Sterling advised the private placement agent, Goldman Sachs, on Travelodge’s private placement of an additional £30 million of its senior secured floating rate notes due 2023 issued by TVL Finance, an affiliate of Travelodge Hotels, pursuant to an indenture dated April 28, 2017. The proceeds of the private placement of the notes, together with cash on hand, were used to redeem certain existing indebtedness and pay transaction-related fees and expenses.

Taylor Wessing has represented one of the investors in a USD 270 million Series A round of financing of BioNTech AG, a fully-integrated biotechnology company pioneering individualized cancer immunotherapy.

Legal advisors

Taylor Wessing: Dr. Norman Röchert and Marc-Oliver Kurth (Lead Partner, Partners, Berlin), Maria Weiers (Partner, Düsseldorf), Dr. Sebastian Beyer (Salary Partner, Frankfurt), Dr. Sebastian Klabunde (Senior Associate), Christian Ahrendt (Associate, both Berlin) (all Corporate, M&A an Capital Markets)

Osborne Clarke has advised Oxford PV Germany GmbH on an European Investment Bank (EIB) financing of €15m. Oxford PV Germany GmbH is a subsidiary of Oxford Photovoltaics Limited, the leader in the field of perovskite solar cells. The financing supports the transfer of its disruptive perovskite on silicon tandem solar cell technology from lab scale to commercialisation.

Linklaters has advised a consortium of banks on the financing of the acquisition of Paysafe Group Plc by Blackstone and CVC. Paysafe is a leading global online payments services company serving more than 125,000 merchants in over 100 countries and this transaction is one of the largest public-to-private takeovers of the year and one of the top 10 largest European LBO's of 2017.
 

DLA Piper has advised Laureate Education (NASDAQ:LAUR), the world’s largest global network of higher education institutions, on the sale of its global network institution in Malaysia -INTI University and Colleges (INTI)- to Affinity Equity Partners (Affinity), one of the largest independent private equity firms in the Asia Pacific region, for a total transaction value of US$180 million. The net transaction value to Laureate under the Agreement will be US$162 million.

Eversheds Sutherland has advised new client TDKP Limited (Moneypenny) on its acquisition of Made Simple Group (Made Simple).

Moneypenny is the world's leading provider of telephone answering, outsourced switchboard, Live Chat and customer contact solutions.

Made Simple is home to a range of products dedicated to providing online solutions to the start-up and small business communities, such as company formation, virtual offices, website creation and most recently a co-working space in central London. 

Munich - Frankfurt Stock Exchange listed KPS AG acquires Infront Consulting & Management GmbH, Hamburg. Taylor Wessing has been advising Munich based KPS AG as buyer in this transaction. KPS is a consulting specialist for business transformation and process optimisation and counts to the leading consulting companies in this field in Europe. Infront is a leading consulting boutique for digital strategy and transformation in the German-speaking countries. The parties agreed not to reveal the purchase price. The transaction is closed.
Legal advisor KPS AG