McGuireWoods LLP announced today that Laurent Wiesel has joined the firm as a partner. For the past decade, he has advised companies, financial institutions and individuals on a wide variety of complex litigation matters and investigations. Now at McGuireWoods, his practice will continue to be focused on commercial and corporate disputes, securities class actions, international arbitration, regulatory and criminal investigations, antitrust litigation and actions involving the interests of foreign sovereigns.

Davis Polk advised underwriters represented by BNP Paribas Securities Corp., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd. and RBC Capital Markets, LLC in connection with the offering of $1 billion aggregate principal amount of 1.25% U.S. dollar bonds due 2016, issued by Export Development Canada.

Arent Fox is pleased to announce that leading sports attorney Matthew D. Pace has joined the firm as a partner in New York.

Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that Stephen T. Whelan has joined the Firm as a partner in the Financial Services group. For more than 30 years, Mr. Whelan has built a substantial practice in the areas of equipment leasing and structured finance, secured lending, and asset securitization. Mr. Whelan is based in the Firm’s New York office.

The Firm represented The Carlyle Group and Oak Hill Capital Partners in their separate investments in the common stock of FNB United Corp. (“FNB”), which consummated a $310 million recapitalization and completed the acquisition of Bank of Granite Corporation (“Granite”) on October 21, 2011.

Davis Polk advised Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. in connection with its SEC-registered follow-on public offering of 44,475,958 Class A shares for an aggregate price to the public of approximately US$1 billion, including 4,043,268 shares that the underwriters purchased pursuant to an over-allotment option. All of the Class A shares were sold by certain shareholders. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, BofA Merrill Lynch, Itau BBA and Credit Suisse acted as joint bookrunners for the offering. Arcos Dorados’ Class A shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ARCO.”

Davis Polk is advising Cigna Corporation in connection with its approximately $3.8 billion acquisition of HealthSpring, Inc. The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is subject to required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2012 and is not subject to a financing condition.

Simpson Thacher is representing Warburg Pincus, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Centerbridge Partners in connection with their agreement to purchase a 25% interest in Banco Santander’s US auto finance business for an aggregate purchase price of $1 billion. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including obtaining the relevant regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Simpson Thacher represented Mercantil Colpatria in connection with its sale to The Bank of Nova Scotia of 51 percent of the shares of Banco Colpatria. Mercantil will receive $500 million in cash and 10 million in common shares of Scotiabank pursuant to the transaction, which values Banco Colpatria at approximately $2 billion.  The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.

The international law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP announced that Larry Kanusher has joined the firm as a shareholder in the Entertainment and Media Practice. Kanusher joins Greenberg Traurig from Sony Music Entertainment where he most recently served as Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for the company’s Global Digital Business group.