John Sarchio, one of the insurance industry’s leading and most respected lawyers, has joined Holland & Knight as chair of the firm’s Insurance Industry Practice Team. Mr. Sarchio, most recently co-founder and co-head of the Insurance and Reinsurance Practice Group at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, brings with him Richard G. Liskov, who joins the firm as a partner. Mr. Sarchio also formerly led the insurance practice at White & Case LLP.

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SRZ represented Cerberus Capital Management LP and LNR Property LLC on the $1.05 billion sale of LNR to Starwood Property Trust and Starwood Capital Group. Under the terms of the deal, which was announced Jan. 24, 2013, Starwood Property Trust will acquire LNR business segments, including 50 percent of its interest in the nation’s leading residential and commercial real estate exchange Auction.com, for a total purchase price of $856 million. In addition, Starwood Capital Group will acquire for $197 million both LNR’s US Commercial Property Group and the other 50 percent of LNR’s ownership interest in Auction.com. Miami-headquartered LNR is a leading diversified real estate investment, finance, management and development firm with 12 offices throughout the U.S. and Europe.

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Cravath represented CyrusOne Inc. in connection with its US$361 million initial public offering of common stock. CyrusOne Inc., a subsidiary of Cincinnati Bell Inc., is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and develops data center properties. The shares will be listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market. The transaction closed on January 24, 2013.

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Reed Smith LLP, a leading international law firm, today announced the addition of Jeff Legault as a partner in its firmwide Corporate & Securities practice in the firm’s New York office.

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Davis Polk is advising MSCI Inc. in connection with its $23.5 million acquisition of Investor Force Holdings, Inc. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013, subject to customary closing conditions.

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Davis Polk is advising Aetna Inc. on its sale of Missouri Care, its Missouri Medicaid business, to WellCare Health Plans, Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. The sale of Missouri Care is related to Aetna’s pending acquisition of Coventry Health Care, Inc., which was announced in August 2012.

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Davis Polk is advising Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. in connection with the acquisition from OM Group, Inc. of a large scale cobalt refinery in Kokkola, Finland through a newly formed joint venture to be held by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Lundin Mining Corporation and La Generale des Carrieres et des Mines for total consideration of up to $435 million. The sale is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.

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Simpson Thacher is representing Laureate Education, Inc. in connection with the $150 million investment in its common stock by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group and the IFC African Latin American, Caribbean Fund. Laureate is the largest private international network of degree-granting higher education institutions with approximately 700,000 students in 24 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East and North Africa and Asia.

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Simpson Thacher is representing Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. in connection with its acquisition of a 24.9% interest in Nephila Capital Ltd. (“Nephila”). Nephila is a leading investment manager focused on investing in natural catastrophe and weather risk.

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International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP announced today that Paul J. Wessel has joined its New York office as a partner and leader of the Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits practice group.

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