Slaughter and May advised Marks & Spencer (M&S) on the sale and franchise of its retail business in Hong Kong and Macau to its long-established franchise partner, Al-Futtaim. The sale, which completed on 30 December 2017, sees Al-Futtaim become the new sole franchisee for M&S in Hong Kong and Macau.

The sale follows M&S’s strategic review of its international business in November 2016, where M&S proposed to have a greater focus on its established franchise and joint venture partnerships and operate with fewer wholly-owned markets.

Contacts

Ashurst advised Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH (Warburg-HIH Invest) on the sale of the office and commercial building "Kö-Blick" in Dusseldorf's Königsallee 61 to the "Cicerone Fund", an Italian pension fund managed by CBRE Global Investors and Fabrica SGR. The property belonged to the portfolio of an individual fund (open real estate special AIF) of Warburg-HIH Invest. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase volume.

DLA Piper has advised the commercial REIT alstria office on the sale of an office and business property to Cresco Capital Group, with the purchase price amounting to €44 million. The building, which is located at Eschenheimer Landstrasse 55 in Frankfurt, is let for a remaining period of two years and generates annual revenues of approximately €1.6 million. Alstria expects the transaction to reach its conclusion in the first quarter of 2018.

Paul, Weiss represented Canadian agricultural products and services giant Agrium Inc. in its $36 billion merger of equals with Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. The merger establishes a new parent company named Nutrien Ltd., which will be the world’s premier provider of crop inputs and services, employing more than 20,000 people across operations in 14 countries.

King & Spalding advised MODEC, Inc on its contract for the supply, charter and operations of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel with Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) as leader and operator for the LIBRA P1 Consortium in Brazil; the second such deal for the client in the country since October.

Cross-border Eversheds Sutherland team advises CyrusOne on its agreement to acquire Zenium Data Centers

Eversheds Sutherland has advised US firm CyrusOne Inc. (CyrusOne), a premier global data center REIT, on its agreement with Quantum Strategic Partners Ltd (Quantum) to acquire Zenium Data Centers (Zenium), a leading hyperscale data center provider in Europe, for $442 million.

Quantum is a private investment fund managed by Soros Fund Management LLC. Zenium has four properties in London and Frankfurt, the continent’s two largest data center markets.

Dechert LLP is acting as lead global counsel on the potential sale of Albea S.A. to PAI Partners by an affiliate of Sun European Partners (the European advisor to Florida-based private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners). The deal is reportedly valued at US$1.5 billion. 

Albea S.A. manufactures plastic packaging products for the beauty and personal care market. PAI Partners is a Paris-based private equity firm. 

Linklaters has advised Chariot Top Group, a company represented by Griffin Real Estate, on a real estate portfolio acquisition comprising 28 shopping centres located across Poland from A-R-A Retail Centres, owned by a consortium formed by Ares Management L.P., AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets and Apollo Rida, and on the subsequent resale of 12 properties from this portfolio to Echo Polska Properties. This transaction has been widely acknowledged to be one of the largest real estate deals signed in 2017 in the CEE region (closing took place on 4 January 2018).

International legal practice Osborne Clarke has advised corporate finance and investment firm, TradeRisks, on arranging and implementing £75.2m of fixed and indexed rate notes to assist Arlington Investors with their purchase of boutique student accommodation provider, Study Inn Group.