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Transactions UK
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June 07, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
The past week in London has seen British broadcaster GB News hit with a libel claim by climate activist Dale Vince, MGM take aim at an immersive events company over intellectual property rights to the James Bond franchise, and law firms Stephenson Harwood and Bowen-Morris & Partners tackle a contracts claim by investment adviser Yieldstreet. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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June 07, 2024
Swiss Law Firm MLL Advises Cleaning Biz On $280M Deal
Property cleaning and repairs company PHM Group Oy said Friday it has agreed to buy the real estate services business of Investis Group for 240 Swiss francs ($280 million), assisted by Swiss firm MLL Legal Ltd.
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June 07, 2024
PE Firm TDR To Take Control Of UK's Asda Grocery Chain
Private equity shop TDR Capital will become majority owner of British supermarket giant Asda by acquiring the shares held by one of the British Indian billionaire Issa brothers, the companies said Friday.
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June 07, 2024
Hill Dickinson-Steered Tech Co. Raises £11M Via Placing
SysGroup PLC said Friday it has raised £11 million ($14 million) after completing an oversubscribed share placing and subscription to finance artificial intelligence adoption and general funding requirements for the U.K. business.
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June 07, 2024
Fieldfisher-Led Lobby Giant Buys UK Adviser For Up To £30M
Public Policy Holding Company said Friday that it has bought Pagefield, a British public relations company, for up to £30 million ($38.4 million) as the Washington-based government relations and advisory group looks to support its clients in Europe.
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June 07, 2024
White & Case Guides French Tech Biz On €350M Paris IPO
French imaging technology specialist Exosens debuted on the Paris stock exchange on Friday after raising €350 million ($380 million) to support development of its defense and nuclear components.
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June 06, 2024
Ex-Autonomy CEO, VP Both Cleared In HP Criminal Fraud Trial
A California federal jury on Thursday acquitted former Autonomy CEO Michael Lynch and former finance Vice President Stephen Chamberlain of criminal fraud and conspiracy charges following an 11-week trial over allegations that the two conned HP into overpaying billions for the British tech company.
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June 06, 2024
Deals Rumor Mill: Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman, Michael Bloomberg
Carl Icahn invests in Caesars, Bill Ackman plans Pershing's public offering, and Michael Bloomberg joins prospective Timberwolves buying group. Here, Law360 breaks down the notable deal rumors from the past week.
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June 06, 2024
Aquiline Secures More Than $3.4B Across 2 New Funds
Financial services-focused private investment firm Aquiline Capital Partners LP on Thursday announced that it garnered more than $3.4 billion of capital across its two latest funds, a financial services-focused private equity fund and a continuation fund.
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June 06, 2024
Pension Funding Levels 'Stable' Ahead Of Looming Election
The political party that wins the July 4 general election will is likely to operate within an environment of stable funding for retirement savings plans, a consultancy said Thursday, as it highlighted the "relatively" consistent levels of funding in the past year.
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June 06, 2024
Latham Leads Robinhood In $200M Buy Of Crypto Exchange
Robinhood said on Thursday that it will buy cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp for approximately $200 million, as the electronic trading platform looks to scale up its global services for digital assets.
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June 06, 2024
Shein's London Float Invites Scrutiny Of ESG Issues
The decision by Shein to choose London for its much-anticipated flotation is a boon for the U.K. market — but it exposes the ultra-fast fashion company to scrutiny of perceived ESG shortfalls that might serve as a new litmus test for other businesses seeking a listing in the British capital.
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June 06, 2024
Smoke Alarm Co.'s £28M Bid For Rival Wins 71% Backing
FireAngel Safety Technology Group PLC said Thursday that Singapore-based home security company Intelligent Safety Electronics Pte. Ltd. has now bought or agreed to buy 71.18% of the U.K. smoke and carbon monoxide detector maker.
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June 06, 2024
Watford FC Fans Set To Score In Sale Of 10% Of Club
English football club Watford has put 10% of the outfit up for sale for £17.5 million ($22.4 million) to fans and investors, in a bid to raise revenue and strengthen the squad.
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June 06, 2024
Haynes Boone Guides Natural Gas Producer's SPAC Merger
An Italian natural gas producer has said that it will merge with a Nasdaq-listed blank-check company to help accelerate its transition to clean energy in a deal steered by Haynes and Boone and Greenberg Traurig.
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June 05, 2024
Debevoise-Led Ambac Unveils 2 Deals Totaling $702M
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP-led Ambac Financial Group on Wednesday announced two deals totaling $702 million, as the insurance holding company said it agreed to sell its financial guarantee business for $420 million in cash and separately announced that it will purchase a majority stake in Beat Capital Partners for roughly $282 million.
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June 05, 2024
Microsoft Blasts Gamers' Bid To Add To Activision Appeal
Microsoft Corp. says the Ninth Circuit should reject a "bevy of additional, extra-record 'facts'" seeking to hold up the recent layoffs of 1,900 Activision and Xbox employees as proof that the tech giant's acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. was anticompetitive.
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June 05, 2024
Orrick-Led SAP Inks $1.5B Deal For Israeli Tech Co. WalkMe
German software company SAP SE said Wednesday it has agreed to purchase software-as-a-service company WalkMe Ltd. for approximately $1.5 billion.
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June 05, 2024
Gov't UK ISA Savings Proposal Gets Cold Shoulder
More financial firms on Wednesday warned that the U.K. government's plans to give consumers a new tax break for investing in U.K. companies was unworkable, adding it could conflict with the Financial Conduct Authority's consumer protection rules.
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June 05, 2024
Swiss Bank Escapes Investor's Unlawful Conspiracy Claim
Lombard Odier has partially succeeded in blocking the claims of an investor who says the private bank withheld inside information about the merits of a British nanotech company's U.S. legal dispute with Samsung to convince him to buy shares in the company just before its price tanked.
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June 05, 2024
Ad Agency Mission Weighs New Offer From Rival Brave Bison
The Mission Group PLC has said it is now evaluating rival Brave Bison's improved possible offer to buy the company for £32.3 million ($41.2 million), although it added the bid fails to reflect the U.K. digital marketing company's value.
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June 05, 2024
Pinsent Mason Guides Lab Services Biz On £11M Fundraise
Angle PLC said Wednesday it has successfully raised gross proceeds of approximately £8.8 million ($11 million) by issuing shares to investors in a targeted £11 million fundraising exercise advised by Pinsent Masons LLP.
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June 05, 2024
UK Investment Firm Raises €300M For Energy Transition Fund
British investment manager Foresight Group said Wednesday that it has raised €300 million ($326 million) for its second fund, which is aimed at investing in renewable energy generation and infrastructure.
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June 05, 2024
Private Equity Giant To Buy €438.7M Stake In Italy's FiberCop
KKR will buy the stake held by the Italian subsidiary of Swisscom AG in a fiber company for €438.7 million ($476.8 million), the companies said on Wednesday, as the private equity giant expands its presence in the telecommunications market in the country.
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June 05, 2024
AstraZeneca Completes $2.4B Deal To Buy Pharma Co. Fusion
Drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Wednesday that it has bought Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Canadian company that specializes in oncology, for $2.4 billion in cash to bolster its range of cancer treatments.
Expert Analysis
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5 Factors Driving Longer Prenotifications In EU Mergers
Attorneys at Linklaters discuss reasons, including transaction complexity and a higher standard of proof, why the duration of the prenotification process in European Commission merger control cases has generally increased over the last 10 years, say attorneys at Linklaters.
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Series
My Favorite Law Prof: How I Learned To Argue Open-Mindedly
Queens College President Frank Wu reflects on how Yale Kamisar’s teaching and guidance at the University of Michigan Law School emphasized a capacity to engage with alternative worldviews and the importance of the ability to argue for both sides of a debate.
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New Clarity On Directors' Creditor Duty In Insolvency Context
The recent case of BTI 2014 v. Sequana, the first to consider the creditor duty at U.K. Supreme Court level, provides directors and insolvency practitioners with significant guidance on how close to insolvency the company needs to be for the creditor duty to be engaged, say attorneys at Shearman.
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German Draft Bill Reflects Trend Toward New Antitrust Tools
A recently proposed amendment to the German Act against Restraints on Competition continues the trend in Europe to equip authorities with greater powers, shifting from a more traditional approach to a more extensive market protection tool, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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How COVID, Supply Chain Woes Are Fueling Air Cargo M&A
The pandemic has triggered a shift in the air cargo market, with supply chain issues and demand for expedited service attracting new investment — and M&A interest will likely continue, even as inflation and other factors damp enthusiasm, say Solange Leandro and Alison Weal at Watson Farley.
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What To Expect From A Simplified EU Merger Control System
The European Commission’s draft amendments to the EU merger control system, expected to be formally adopted shortly, reduce its administrative burden and expand the scope of the simplified procedure to additional categories of transactions, providing a welcome development for companies and their advisers, say Axel Gutermuth and Lukas Šimas at Arnold & Porter.
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How The Pandemic And UK Security Law Are Changing Deals
Deal makers must consider how the COVID-19 pandemic has shaped the approach to material adverse change provisions in the U.K. and U.S., and how the new U.K. National Security and Investment Act regime will affect investors across the globe seeking to acquire material influence in a U.K. company, say attorneys at Covington.
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3 Foreign Investment Issues Affecting Cross-Border Deals
Now more than ever, managing the increasingly complex foreign direct investment considerations for successfully completing cross-border transactions requires parties to be attentive to the evolving regulatory landscape, particularly in the U.K. and EU, say Chase Kaniecki and William Dawley at Cleary.
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A Review Of The New UK Financial Services And Markets Bill
In revoking retained EU law and replacing it with U.K.-specific legislation, the new Financial Services and Markets Bill should mean a less cumbersome and more accessible regulatory regime than the existing patchwork of requirements, with provisions that address consumers’ concerns that they were not adequately protected, say attorneys at Ashurst.
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Tracking The Global Move Toward Tighter Mergers Scrutiny
The recent merger control case of Vivendi and Lagardère in France is indicative of a global trend of competition authorities applying stricter standards to concentrations and pursuing an increasingly aggressive enforcement agenda, particularly in the media sector, says Jérémie Marthan at White & Case.
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Dutch Merger May Promote Behavioral Remedies Across EU
A Dutch tribunal's recent clearing of the Sanoma-Iddink deal might further encourage merging parties in the EU to offer — and government agencies to accept — behavioral remedies, which was rarer when more emphasis was put on divestments, says Robert Hardy at Greenberg Traurig.
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Proposed Foreign Subsidy Regulation Has Political Overtones
The European Commission's proposed Foreign Subsidies Regulation aims to prevent subsidies that have a distortive effect on competition from being granted to foreign companies, but in directing it against governments that use companies to extend their influence in the EU, the implications are clearly political, say Lena Sandberg and Yannis Ioannidis at Gibson Dunn.
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Early Trends In UK National Security Reviews Of Transactions
The U.K.'s move to block an intellectual property deal between Beijing Infinite Vision Technology and the University of Manchester — the first such prohibition under the recently implemented National Security and Investment Act — is part of a growing body of published decisions that provides useful lessons on achieving prompt security clearance, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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Guidance Notes Offer Insight On UK National Security Regime
The U.K. government recently published long-awaited market guidance notes that add a greater level of transparency regarding the national security and investment regime, providing welcome guidance to businesses and their legal advisers on submitting transaction notifications, say attorneys at Cooley.
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Ruling On EU Commission Merger Reviews Signifies U-Turn
In validating the European Commission's new policy of using Merger Regulation Article 22 to review cases that do not qualify under the merger control rules of the requesting member state, the General Court has demonstrated that the EU is prepared to move the goal posts on well-established commission policy, say attorneys at King & Spalding.