On August 6, Willkie client W. R. Berkley Corporation closed on its offering of $350 million of 4.75% Senior Notes due 2044. The company announced its pricing of the offering on July 30. An insurance holding company, W. R. Berkley is among the largest commercial lines writers in the United States. It operates in three segments of the property casualty insurance business: Insurance-Domestic, Insurance-International and Reinsurance-Global.
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Davis Polk advised JPMorgan Chase & Co. as a shareholder of Tribune Media Company in connection with its spinoff of Tribune Publishing Company. Pursuant to the spinoff, 25,042,263 shares of Tribune Publishing Company common stock were distributed pro-rata to the holders of Tribune Media Company Class A common stock, Class B common stock and warrants. Tribune Media Company received $275 million in connection with the spinoff, consisting of a cash dividend paid by Tribune Publishing Company prior to the spinoff.

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Travers Smith LLP has advised Paragon Offshore plc and Noble Corporation plc on the creation of Paragon and its demerger from Noble Group, which became effective on 1 August 2014. Paragon is listed on NYSE. Trading in its shares commenced on 4 August 2014.

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Herbert Smith Freehills has advised the Wellington Gateway Partnership consortium (WGP) on its successful bid for New Zealand’s largest ever Public Private Partnership (PPP), the availability based NZ$1 billion Transmission Gully Motorway.

WGP will finance, design and construct the project and then operate and maintain the 27km Transmission Gully Motorway for a 25 year period following completion of construction. The project is New Zealand’s first state highway to be delivered as a PPP. WGP aims to have the Transmission Gully highway open for traffic by 2020.

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Kirkland & Ellis advises Pennsylvania-based independent oil and gas company East Resources, Inc. and an unnamed private company (together the “Sellers”) in the sale of 48,000 net acres of Marcellus Shale leasehold in West Virginia to American Energy – Marcellus, LLC for $1.275 billion, subject to customary closing adjustments. Kirkland also advises the Sellers in the sale of 27,000 net acres of Utica Shale leasehold in Ohio to American Energy – Utica, LLC for $475 million, subject to customary closing adjustments. 
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In a noteworthy deal aligning two prominent asset managers, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is representing leading UK-based hedge fund Man Group PLC in its announced acquisition of Numeric Holdings LLC, an investment manager based in Boston.

Under their joint agreement, Man will pay $219 million in cash, with up to $275 million payable to Numeric management and employees following after a five-year period. The deal is expected to close in September.

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Cahill represented Morgan Stanley and Barclays as joint book-running managers in connection with the public offering of $600,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 6.00% Senior Notes due 2022 by CDW LLC and CDW Finance Corporation, a leading provider of integrated information technology solutions in the United States and Canada. Proceeds from the offering were used to refinance existing indebtedness.
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DLA Piper has advised GE Capital International and Ares Management Ltd on the provision of a £113.5 million unitranche facility to refinance Hillarys, the leading UK provider of domestic blinds and window fittings owned by European Capital.

The facilities include a term unitranche component, a junior term debt component and a revolving credit facility.

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Our energy lawyers have advised long-standing client Sumitomo Corporation, one of the World’s largest integrated trading companies, on the sale of Summit Petroleum Limited and its subsidiary companies to Ithaca Energy for $170 million.

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