Stephen T. Whelan Brings Significant Structured Finance Experience to Blank Rome

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that Stephen T. Whelan has joined the Firm as a partner in the Financial Services group. For more than 30 years, Mr. Whelan has built a substantial practice in the areas of equipment leasing and structured finance, secured lending, and asset securitization. Mr. Whelan is based in the Firm’s New York office.

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Tags:  Blank Rome LLP | New York

Locke Lord’s Nationally Recognized Corporate Insurance Practice Group Adds Two New Lateral Attorneys to its Chicago Office

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Locke Lord today announced the addition of two new Corporate Insurance attorneys to its national Corporate Insurance Practice Group, a practice that counts more than 50 lawyers who devote a substantial portion of their transactional, corporate, securities, investment management, tax and regulatory practices to representing the insurance industry.

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Tags:  Locke Lord LLP

Ogletree Deakins Expands Phoenix Office, Adds Mark Kisicki and Thomas Stanek as Shareholders

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart P.C. (Ogletree Deakins), one of the nation’s largest labor and employment law firms, is pleased to announce that Mark Kisicki and Thomas Stanek have joined its Phoenix office as shareholders. Both join Ogletree Deakins from Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where they were resident in the firm’s Phoenix office. Kisicki and Stanek’s practices are national in scope, with a balance of traditional labor, employment law and litigation. Their arrival deepens Ogletree Deakins’ labor and employment law experience in Phoenix and reaffirms the firm’s status as the “go-to” firm for employers – not merely in Arizona but throughout the nation.

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Tags:  Ogletree Deakins | Phoenix

Clifford Chance advises on Phase II of the financing of a US$10.8 billion integrated aluminium complex in Saudi Arabia, sponsored by Ma’aden and Alcoa

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Clifford Chance and Al-Jadaan & Partners Law Firm have advised the financiers on Phase II of the financing of a US$10.8 billion integrated aluminium complex and related infrastructure, sponsored by Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) and Alcoa Inc. Phase II involved the financing of a bauxite mine to be developed at Al Ba’itha in Saudi Arabia and an associated alumina refinery, with the combined cost of development being US$3.58 billion. The bauxite mine will be the first such mine in Saudi Arabia and is set to extract up to 4,250,000 tonnes of bauxite ore per annum. The refinery will have an initial capacity of 1,800,000 tonnes of refined alumina per year. Both the mine and refinery are being developed by Ma’aden Bauxite and Alumina Company (MBAC). MBAC is a joint venture between Ma’aden and Alcoa Inc. Once complete, the entire project will be the largest fully integrated aluminium complex in the world, with a refinery, smelter and food-grade can sheet rolling mill located at the Ras Al Khair industrial site (previously known as Ras Az Zawr) in north-eastern Saudi Arabia, fed by bauxite sourced from the Al Ba’itha mine.

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Tags:  Clifford Chance LLP | Dubai

Simpson Thacher Represents The Carlyle Group and Oak Hill Capital Partners in Their Separate Investments in FNB United Corp.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Firm represented The Carlyle Group and Oak Hill Capital Partners in their separate investments in the common stock of FNB United Corp. (“FNB”), which consummated a $310 million recapitalization and completed the acquisition of Bank of Granite Corporation (“Granite”) on October 21, 2011.

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Tags:  Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP | New York

Davis Polk – Arcos Dorados US$1 Billion Follow-On Offering

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Davis Polk advised Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. in connection with its SEC-registered follow-on public offering of 44,475,958 Class A shares for an aggregate price to the public of approximately US$1 billion, including 4,043,268 shares that the underwriters purchased pursuant to an over-allotment option. All of the Class A shares were sold by certain shareholders. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, BofA Merrill Lynch, Itau BBA and Credit Suisse acted as joint bookrunners for the offering. Arcos Dorados’ Class A shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ARCO.”

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Tags:  Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP | New York

Davis Polk Advises Cigna on Its Acquisition of HealthSpring

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Davis Polk is advising Cigna Corporation in connection with its approximately $3.8 billion acquisition of HealthSpring, Inc. The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is subject to required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2012 and is not subject to a financing condition.

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Tags:  Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP | New York

White & Case Advises Lenders on €1.9 Billion French “Eco Tax” Project

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Global law firm White & Case LLP advised the lenders on the financing of an innovative €1.9 billion public-private partnership (PPP) to build and operate an electronic truck tolling system for French roads. The French Eco-tax project, as it is called, will use satellite tracking to charge trucks and other heavy vehicles using non-toll national roads. The project is expected to be fully operational nationally by 2013, following a three-month trial period in France’s Alsace region.

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Tags:  White & Case LLP