Linklaters is advising Hony Capital, a leading Chinese private equity firm, on its acquisition of Pizza Express from The Gondola Group.
The acquisition, valued at approximately £900m, is the largest in the European restaurant sector in the past five years.
Tags: Linklaters LLP
Mayer Brown and Tauil & Chequer Advogados in association with Mayer Brown represented Itau Unibanco S.A., a Brazilian bank acting through its Cayman Islands Branch, as borrower of a US $400 million loan from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US government’s development finance institution. Itau Unibanco S.A. will use the proceeds to make loans to small and medium enterprises in Brazil.
Tags: Mayer Brown LLPOn July 15, 2014, British American Tobacco (“BAT”) announced that it has agreed to invest approximately US$4.7 billion as part of Reynolds American’s proposed acquisition of Lorillard, enabling BAT to maintain its 42% ownership in Reynolds American following the acquisition. The boards of both Reynolds American, an associate company of BAT, and Lorillard have announced the proposed purchase of Lorillard by Reynolds American for approximately US$27.4 billion, including the assumption of net debt, equivalent to US$68.88 per Lorillard share. Reynolds American also announced that it has reached an agreement with Imperial Tobacco under which Imperial has agreed to purchase the KOOL, Salem, Winston, Maverick and blu eCigs brands and other assets and liabilities for a total consideration of approximately $7.1 billion in cash.
DLA Piper has advised Ziraat Bank, Turkey’s largest bank by deposits and number of branches, in its successful debut issuance of $750 million 4.250 notes due 2019 under the bank’s Medium Term Note (MTN) programme. The firm also advised on the establishment of the programme in May 2014.
Tags: DLA Piper
ClearStar shares were admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market on Friday, July 11, 2014. The company raised approximately £8.84 million gross (approximately £7.4 million net of expenses) from institutional investors. ClearStar is the first U.S.-based company to list on AIM this year, bringing total money raised on the market to c. £2.4 billion in the last 12 months (almost three times that raised in the 12 months prior).
Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Macquarie Capital Securities Limited and ICBC International Capital Limited in relation to their role as the joint sponsors of Kangda International Environmental Company Limited’s (“Kangda”) HK$1.4 billion Initial Public Offering (IPO) and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Kangda is a leading wastewater treatment service provider in the People’s Republic of China. The company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 4 July 2014.
Tags: Hong Kong
The firm is representing J.P. Morgan Securities LLC in its role as financial advisor to Whiting Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: WLL) in connection with Whiting’s announced all-stock acquisition of Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: KOG) in a transaction valued at $6.0 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Tags: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Herbert Smith Freehills has advised UBS AG, Hong Kong Branch; Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited; and CITIC Securities Corporate Finance (HK) Limited in relation to their role as the underwriters and joint sponsors of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Luye Pharma Group Ltd. (“Luye”) and its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The IPO raised US$764 million, making it the world’s largest pharmaceutical company IPO in three years.
Luye focuses on developing, producing and distributing innovative pharmaceutical products in three of China’s largest and fastest growing therapeutic areas: oncology, cardiovascular system and alimentary tract and metabolism.
Tags: Herbert Smith Freehills LLPMacfarlanes has advised PizzaExpress senior management on the sale of the restaurant chain to Chinese investment group Hony Capital for £900m.
The PizzaExpress chain has over 400 restaurants in the UK, is being bought by Hony Capital from the London-based private equity firm Cinven.
Tags: Macfarlanes LLP