International legal practice Norton Rose LLP has advised Energees Investments, the principal holding company of the Smart Holding Group, one of the largest Ukrainian based holding companies, on its public takeover offer for AIM-listed Regal Petroleum plc.

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Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP advised CIGNA Corporation on an SEC-registered debt shelf takedown of $250 million aggregate principal amount of its 4.375% senior notes due 2020. Barclays Capital Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. acted as representatives of the several underwriters for the offering.

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Arent Fox LLP announced today that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reversed a lower court decision and ordered the federal government to pay Arizona ranchers for property it has taken from them.

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Chadbourne & Parke represented Abound Solar Manufacturing, LLC in connection with a $400 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The guarantee, which supports financing for two manufacturing plants in Indiana and Colorado for state-of-the-art thin-film solar panels, was the fifth guarantee to be issued by the Department of Energy in its Loan Guarantee Program for renewable and innovative energy projects. At full capacity, the project will produce 840 megawatts of thin-film solar panels a year, utilizing innovative production techniques.

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Leading international law firm, Clifford Chance announces it advised Wellstream Holdings, one of the world’s leading suppliers of flexible pipes to the offshore oil industry, on its sale to General Electric for £800million, announced yesterday. The deal will allow General Electric to expand its subsea equipment and services portfolio.

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Simpson Thacher represented The Hershey Company in the offering of $350 million aggregate principal amount of its 4.125% Notes due 2020. The proceeds of the offering were used to purchase for cash any and all of its outstanding 6.95% notes due 2012 that were validly tendered pursuant to a tender offer launched on December 8, 2010.

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Cypress Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq: CYPB) (“Cypress”), a pharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative drugs to treat central nervous system (CNS) disorders, announced today that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Ramius V&O Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of Ramius LLC (collectively, “Ramius”) and affiliates of Royalty Pharma (“Royalty Pharma”), providing for the acquisition of Cypress by Ramius and Royalty Pharma. Under the terms of the agreement, which was unanimously approved by Cypress’ Board of Directors, Ramius will amend its existing tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Cypress common stock it does not already own at an increased price of $6.50 per share in cash. The transaction has a total equity value of approximately $255 million on a fully-diluted basis.

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On December 8, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Claims Resolution Act of 2010, which provides $4 billion to individual American Indians and Indian tribes to resolve disputes over past royalties from oil, gas and timber extraction from their lands and water rights disputes in Arizona, New Mexico and Montana.  Title IV of this Act – the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2010 – resolves decades-old claims against the government regarding the water rights of the Crow Tribe and provides important funding for water projects for irrigation and power.

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Kirkland & Ellis International LLP advised TowerBrook Capital Partners in the sale of PolymerLatex Deutschland Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH to Yule Catto & Co plc for a total transaction value of €443 million. The PolymerLatex Group, headquartered in Marl, Germany, is an established player in the development, production and distribution of emulsion polymer products. Yule Catto & Co plc, based in Harlow, Essex, United Kingdom, is already the owner of another polymer business. The purchase agreement was signed on 13 December 2010. The transaction, which is subject to the necessary regulatory and shareholder approvals, is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2011.

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Shearman & Sterling represented the underwriters, for whom Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, as joint bookrunning managers, served as representatives, in connection with Carlisle Companies’ public offering of $250 million of its 5.125% Notes due 2020. Carlisle Companies is a holding company for diversified manufacturing businesses in construction materials, engineered transportation, interconnect technologies and food service products segments.

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