Baker & McKenzie recently advised eBay, the world’s leading e-commerce company and the world’s largest online marketplace, on its acquisition of an approximately 20 percent stake in PeaceSoft, a Vietnamese e-commerce company.
Tags: Baker McKenzie 
Monthly Archives: April 2011
Kirkland Advises Sumitomo Corporation of America in Investment in Caithness Shepherds Flat
Kirkland & Ellis LLP advised Sumitomo Corporation of America (SCOA), a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sumitomo Corporation, in its approximately $200 million investment in Caithness Shepherds Flat, LLC, announced today. Caithness Shepherds Flat is the owner of the 845 megawatt Shepherds Flat wind project, which when completed in 2012 will be the largest wind project in the world.
Tags: Kirkland & Ellis LLP 
BLP Advises Balfour Beatty on Disposal of UK Trackwork Manufacturing Business
Law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has advised long-standing client Balfour Beatty on the disposal of its UK rail manufacturing business to Progress Rail Services UK Limited, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc. The deal is due to complete in early May 2011.
Tags: Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP 
Davis Polk Advises Arcos Dorados on Its US$1.4 Billion NYSE IPO
Davis Polk advised Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. in connection with its SEC-registered initial public offering of 84,506,788 Class A shares for an aggregate price to the public of approximately US$1.4 billion. Arcos Dorados sold 9,529,412 Class A shares and certain selling shareholders sold 74,977,376 Class A shares, including 11,022,624 Class A shares sold to the underwriters pursuant to an over-allotment option. BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Itau BBA and Citi acted as joint bookrunners for the offering. Arcos Dorados’ Class A shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ARCO.”
Tags: Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP 
Simpson Thacher Represents PPL Corporation in Concurrent Common Stock and Equity Units Offerings
The Firm represented PPL Corporation (“PPL”) in its concurrent offerings of an aggregate of $3.3 billion consisting of 92 million shares of common stock and 19.55 million equity units, each including the full exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option.
Tags: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP 
Allens Acts on Establishment of AusChina Energy Group Joint Venture
Allens Arthur Robinson (Allens) has acted on the establishment of AusChina Energy Group, a renewable energy joint venture between two of China’s largest State-owned renewable energy businesses – China Datang Renewable Power Co and Tianwei Baobian Electric Co – and CBD Energy Limited.
Tags: Allens Kinney’s 26 (so far) 2011 Asia Placements of US associates in Law Firms
Robert here. It has been a solid past few months for us in HK / China and Singapore. Here is a list of our very recent placements in 2011. We also are in the process now of making numerous additional Asia placements (outstanding offers with our candidate likely to accept). Further, please note that this list does not include the several in-house and partner level placements we have made in Asia this year. We also have represented numerous associates who had offers but transferred within their own firms to Asia. Even these situations are successes when they allow our candidates to make an informed decision.
* – denotes 2 or more 2011 placements in the office
Skadden – Hong Kong *
Milbank – Singapore
Davis Polk – Hong Kong
Latham – Beijing
Latham – Hong Kong
Latham – Singapore
Paul Hastings – Hong Kong *
Simpson Thacher – Hong Kong
Ropes & Gray – Hong Kong
Ropes & Gray – Shanghai (soon to be opened office)
Orrick – Hong Kong
Orrick – Beijing
Clifford Chance – Singapore
Clifford Chance – Hong Kong
A&O – Hong Kong
Proskauer Rose – Hong Kong
Baker & McKenzie – Hong Kong *
Freshfields – Hong Kong
Shearman – Hong Kong
White & Case – Singapore
Linklaters – Singapore
O’Melveny – Shanghai
Skadden – Singapore
Many of the placements listed above represent great launching pad opportunities for our candidates and many did not happen quickly or without great effort on our part. We don’t simply email resumes to a list of firms and hope for the best, as do many so-called recruiters. Our placements are in most cases the result of informing the candidate on their target market for months before they begin a job search and our traveling back and forth between Asia markets and US markets in order to meet with both US associate candidates and partners at their target firms.
Tags: Asia | Hong KongDavis Polk – AloStar Bank of Commerce Acquires Assets of Nexity Bank
Davis Polk advised FBR Capital Markets in connection with the acquisition by AloStar Bank of Commerce of substantially all of the assets, and the assumption of the liabilities of, Nexity Bank, Birmingham, Alabama from the FDIC. AloStar was capitalized with $160 million of new equity from four private equity funds and the new management team. Nexity was a bankers’ bank with approximately $800 million in assets. FBR Capital Markets acted as a financial adviser to AloStar.
Tags: Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP 
Intellectual Property Boutique Dragotti joins DLA Piper Italy
Orrick Receives Favorable Summary Judgment Ruling for Former Microtune Executive in Stock Options Backdating Case
Orrick obtained a victory for former Microtune, Inc. general counsel and CFO Nancy Richardson. The Hon. Jane Boyle, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas, granted summary judgment to all but a small portion of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s action against Ms. Richardson on the grounds that the case was time-barred under 28 USC Section 2462.
Tags: Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP 