• October 16, 2013 |

    Gide raids Morgan Lewis Paris for 19-strong team

    Morgan Lewis & Bockius' Paris managing partner has led a 19-lawyer exodus from the firm's office in the French capital to Gide Loyrette Nouel. Anne Tolila, the office's managing partner is one of nine partners to defect to Gide.

    1 minute read

  • October 10, 2013 |

    Cleary and White & Case shine for diamond maker on $1.5bn Russian IPO

    Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and White & Case have landed leading roles on diamond miner Alrosa's billion-dollar public offering. Through the Moscow listing, Alrosa's owners will sell a collective 16% stake in the company, estimated to be worth around $1.5bn (£930m). The governments of Russia and the autonomous Sakha Republic, where Alrosa is based, will each sell off 7% of the company, while management will sell 2%.

    1 minute read

  • October 10, 2013 |

    Top firms set to do battle at 2013 British Legal Awards

    Linklaters is leading the way in nominations for the top practice awards as the shortlist for the 2013 British Legal Awards has been unveiled. The magic circle has nominations M&A, banking, financing or restructuring, and commercial team of the year categories. However, it missed out on the law firm of the year shortlist.

    1 minute read

  • October 4, 2013 |

    Davis Polk joins Wilson Sonsini on Twitter IPO

    Davis Polk has taken a major role on the initial public offering (IPO) of Twitter, in one of the most highly-watched public listings of 2013. A Davis Polk team led by West coast corporate partner Alan Denenbeg is providing counsel to the underwriting banks, which include Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and BofA Merrill Lynch. The US firm joins Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which last month confirmed it was acting for longstanding client Twitter on the IPO.

    1 minute read

  • October 3, 2013 |

    Slaughters, Linklaters and Paul Weiss toast top roles on Stock Spirits IPO

    Slaughter and May and Linklaters have secured roles on the initial public offering of Stock Spirits Group on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, valuing the company at £600m-£800m. The offer will comprise £50m of new shares and the partial sale of existing shares held by funds managed by private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management and Stock Spirits' current and former managers.

    1 minute read

  • October 3, 2013 |

    Hogan Lovells, Reed Smith lead Islamic ship financing

    Hogan Lovells and Reed Smith have acted on Barwa Bank's $125m (£78m) Islamic facility made available to UAE-based shipping company Topaz Energy and Marine. The facility will finance 12 of Topaz's ships operating in the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. It has two separate structures: a $110m (£68.2m) scheme for 10 existing vessels; and a $15m (£9.3m) deal for the purchase of two vessels under construction.

    1 minute read

  • October 2, 2013 |

    US pair appoint new senior management

    Bingham McCutchen has appointed Boston-based corporate practice co-head Steve Browne as the firm's first managing partner. Charged with supervising the day-to-day operations of the firm, Browne will work closely with long-serving Bingham chairman Jay Zimmerman, who will take on the title of chief executive officer.

    1 minute read

  • September 30, 2013 |

    Burges Salmon advises as Europe's largest tidal power generation project gets go-ahead

    Burges Salmon has helped secure consent for the largest tidal power generation project to have gained approval in Europe. The firm has advised MyGen - a joint venture between investment bank Morgan Stanley (45%), GDF SUEZ (45%) and tidal technology provider Atlantis Resources Corporation (10%) - on the 86MW Phase 1 Pentland Firth tidal generation development, which was given approval earlier this month.

    1 minute read

  • September 24, 2013 |

    Cleary and Skadden among group of six on take private of Yongye

    Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom have taken lead roles on the $340m take private of Nasdaq-listed Chinese crop and animal nutrients manufacturer, Yongye International. The Beijing-based company said in October last year it had received an offer from a group of buyers, including chairman and CEO Zishen Wu, majority shareholder Full Alliance International, MSPEA Agriculture Holding and Abax Global Capital, for $6.60 per share they didn't already own.

    1 minute read

  • September 18, 2013 |

    Shearman becomes best friends with Italian tax outfit Tremonti

    Shearman & Sterling has launched a non-exclusive best-friends agreement with leading Italian tax firm Tremonti Vitali Romagnoli Piccardi. The two firms expect the arrangement to "enhance the breadth and geographic reach of their services" by offering an integrated tax and corporate service to both international and Italian clients.

    1 minute read