Advising on best practice for communicating R&D progress to the public and to investors

Simmons & Simmons has advised the UK BioIndustry Association, the trade association for the British bioscience industry, alongside financial communications firms Consilium Strategic Communications and Instinctif Partners, on a new best practice guide for communicating Research & Development (R&D) progress to the public and to investors.

Slaughter and May acted for Scientific Games Corporation ("Scientific Games") on its acquisition of NYX Gaming Group Limited ("NYX"). The transaction was completed on Friday 5 January 2018 and was executed by way of a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement under Part VIII of the Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008. The offer was approved by an overwhelming vote of NYX shareholders on 20 December 2017.

CMS has advised Broekhuis Group, a leading automotive company in the Netherlands. The group has a lease division, car repair shops and dealerships for inter alia BMW, Ford, Land Rover, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen. Martin Schilder is dealer of inter alia Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Skoda and Fiat. In addition, the company is active in car damage repair, car rental, petrol stations, in-vehicle equipment and insurance.

Broekhuis signed an agreement to acquire all shares in Martin Schilder, except for its lease division.

Slaughter and May, Hong Kong, advised Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Limited, as manager, in relation to the HK$928.2 million secondary block trade of shares in Xiabuxiabu Catering Management (China) Holdings Co., Ltd. held by General Atlantic Singapore Fund Pte. Ltd. The block trade represents approximately 6.3% of the issued share capital of Xiabuxiabu Catering Management (China) Holdings Co., Ltd.

Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has successfully represented HC-One in securing merger clearance from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for HC-One's acquisition of 122 care homes from Bupa, the international healthcare group.

The deal, which completed on 14 December 2017, is an important step for HC-One, a provider of health and social care in the UK, to strategically expand its services across the UK, while providing the best and kindest care.

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW“) advised Blue Elephant Energy AG (“BEE”) on its acquisition of a 20 MW wind farm in Italy. The seller is a company in the European Energy Group, the buyer BEEGO IPP GmbH, an affiliate of BEE. The wind farm, located in the province of Potenza in the Basilicata region of southern Italy, comprises ten Vestas V110-2MW type wind turbines with a total capacity of 20 MW and has been operational since early 2017.

Jones Day acted for iQ Student Accommodation in relation to its acquisition of the UK focused Pure Student Living student housing property portfolio and business from LetterOne Treasury.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP successfully advised Precision Medicine Group on a new $275 million investment, led by Berkshire Partners and TPG Growth, alongside a significant participation from Precision’s co-founders and management team and original investors Oak Investment Partners and J.H. Whitney.

Shearman & Sterling advised Liberty Global plc on the completed split-off of Liberty Latin America Ltd. Liberty Latin America comprises Liberty Global’s operations in Latin America and the Caribbean that were attributed to its “LiLAC Group” tracking shares and has an enterprise value of approximately $9.3 billion.

Mayer Brown JSM acted as the legal adviser for Essence Corporate Finance (Hong Kong) Limited as Sole Sponsor in relation to China Futex Holdings Limited’s listing on Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

China Futex is engaged in the research and development, manufacturing and sales of both single and double circular knitting machines.

The Mayer Brown JSM team was led by Corporate & Securities partner Derek Tsang.