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.

Advising Vobile Group Limited on its initial public offering and listing on Hong Kong Stock Exchange

The firm has advised Vobile Group Limited (Stock code: 3738) on its initial public offering and listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Simmons & Simmons acted as issuer's Hong Kong counsel to Vobile Group Limited. Silicon Valley-based Vobile Group is the leading provider of online video content protection services.

Fried Frank acted as counsel to Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL.L), a global business-to-business information company, on its acquisition of Clavis Insight for an initial cash consideration of US$119 million paid in December 2017 plus future earnout payments payable over three years. The total consideration is capped at US$219 million and a portion of the earnout is subject to the founders remaining employed by the company.

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW“) advised PNE WIND AG (“PNE“) on the sale of its remaining 20%  stake in a 142 MW wind farm portfolio to Allianz Renewable Energy Fund II (“AREF II”), an investment fund managed by Allianz Global Investors GmbH, for €23m. PNE remains responsible for the technical, commercial and operational management of the wind farms in the portfolio.