DLA Piper announced today that a team of three partners has joined the firm in its Corporate Group in Singapore. John Viverito and Myles Hankin are joining from Gibson Dunn, Singapore, and Joseph Bauerschmidt from Jones Day, Singapore. The three have worked together in the past and are reuniting as colleagues at DLA Piper. Each of John, Joe and Myles are ranked experts in their fields by Chambers and other leading legal guides. More >>

Latham & Watkins has advised PT Pertamina (Persero) in the signing of a series of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the upgrade and expansion of five refinery facilities in Indonesia at an estimated cost of approximately US$25 billion. The MOUs were signed with Saudi Aramco, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec), and JX Nippon Oil and include the redevelopment of the Cilicap, Balongan, Plaju, Dumai and Balikpapan refineries. More >>

Morrison & Foerster is advising Global Logistic Properties Limited (GLP), the leading provider of modern logistics facilities in China, Japan and Brazil, in a co-investment with an affiliate of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte. Ltd. to buy one of the largest logistics real estate portfolios in the United States from the Blackstone Group. The US$8.1 billion deal marks GLP’s first foray into the U.S. market. As detailed in GLP’s press release, the transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015. More >>

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised COFCO Corporation on the closing of two concurrent global acquisitions, being 51% of Noble Agri Limited for an initial purchase price of US$1.5 billion and 51% of Nidera Capital B.V. for approximately US$1.3 billion. Both Noble Agri and Nidera acquisitions became wholly unconditional on 30 September and were completed and settled on 14 October.

Noble Agri, which was the global agricultural platform of the Singapore listed Noble Group, mainly engages in the origination, storage, processing, transportation, distribution and trading of grain and oilseeds, soft commodities and sugar by originating from low-cost producing regions such as Brazil, Argentina and the Black Sea region, and supplying to markets with high demand such as China, India and Middle East. More >>

Allen & Overy has advised Emperador Inc, a subsidiary of Alliance Global Group Inc., one of the largest Philippines conglomerates, on its acquisition of Whyte & Mackay Group from United Spirits Limited, a company listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, for an enterprise value of approximately GBP430 million.

Emperador’s purchase of Whyte & Mackay ranks as one of the biggest overseas acquisitions by a Philippine company in recent years. The transaction was the result of a competitive auction process arising from a UK competition enquiry and subsequent ruling following Diageo PLC’s acquisition of a significant stake in United Spirits in 2013. More >>

Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, represented the banks in financing the on the financing for IBC Capital Limited’s acquisition of Goodpack Limited, a Singapore publicly-listed company and affiliate of, leading global investment firm, KKR. More >>

In a noteworthy Asian aviation transaction, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP acted as international counsel to Indonesia-based Lion Group in its $1.2 billion purchase of 124 jet engines from aircraft engine maker CFM International. The deal includes development of a multimillion-dollar maintenance facility and implementation of a long-term engine parts and repair consultancy. More >>

Global legal practice Norton Rose Fulbright advised Natixis Singapore Branch as sole mandated lead arranger and underwriter on a US$225 million limited recourse project financing facility to finance two floating production facilities for PetroFirst Infrastructure Limited, a joint venture between energy-focused private equity leader First Reserve and oilfield services giant Petrofac. The joint venture, announced on 26 June 2014, will deploy $1.25 billion of equity capital both in purchasing a number of existing floating production, storage and offloading assets from Petrofac’s Integrated Energy Services (IES) sector, as well as in new infrastructure projects. More >>