Covington & Burling represented UCB in connection with its agreement to sell Kremers Urban Pharmaceuticals Inc., a U.S.-based subsidiary, to Advent International and Avista Capital Partners. UCB will receive gross cash proceeds of $1.525 billion upon closing. More >>

Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings (LabCorp®) and Covance Inc. announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which LabCorp will acquire Covance for cash and LabCorp shares currently valued at $105.12 per Covance share, or an equity value of approximately $6.1 billion. Cravath represented Covance in this transaction. The combination will create the world’s leading healthcare diagnostics company. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015 and is subject to Covance shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. More >>

Davis Polk advised Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC as representatives of the underwriters in connection with the $2.3 billion secondary offering of 90,000,000 shares of common stock of Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. by certain selling stockholders affiliated with The Blackstone Group L.P. Hilton’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “HLT.” More >>

Simpson Thacher is representing NewStar Financial in connection with an investment by three Franklin Square business development companies (which are advised by GSO Capital) in $300 million of NewStar subordinated notes and warrants to purchase approximately 20% of NewStar’s common stock. The transaction is scheduled to close in stages, beginning at the end of this year and continuing through 2015. Issuance of a portion of the warrants is subject to approval by NewStar’s stockholders at a special meeting expected to be held within the next few months. More >>

Publicis Groupe and Sapient announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Publicis Groupe will acquire Sapient in an all‑cash transaction for $25.00 per share, or approximately $3.7 billion. Cravath represented Sapient in this transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. More >>

In its latest large capital markets transaction in the energy sector, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has represented SBM Offshore N.V. in the $450 million bond offering supporting the company’s natural gas production center deployed in the Deep Panuke natural gas field off the coast of Nova Scotia. More >>

Davis Polk is advising Aetna in connection with its approximately $400 million acquisition of bswift. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust approval, is expected to close before the end of the year. More >>

On November 3, 2014, Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings (LabCorp®) and Covance Inc. announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which LabCorp will acquire Covance for cash and LabCorp shares currently valued at $105.12 per Covance share, or an equity value of approximately $6.1 billion. Cravath represented Covance in this transaction. The combination will create the world’s leading healthcare diagnostics company. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015 and is subject to Covance shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. More >>