A Clifford Chance team led out of the US is advising GTECH S.p.A. in connection with up to US $10.7 billion in committed financing from Credit Suisse, Barclays and Citigroup. The financing will be used to support GTECH's announced US $4.7 billion acquisition of Las Vegas, Nev., based International Game Technology, Inc., and to potentially refinance existing debt.
Clifford Chance advised the senior lenders, represented by J.P. Morgan Limited and UniCredit Bank AG London Branch, in the context of the acquisition of Nocibé by Douglas Holding AG, the leader in perfume and cosmetic retail in Europe. As a result of this transaction Douglas will become the largest perfume and cosmetics retailer in France with a network of 642 stores.
The team was led by Thierry Arachtingi (partner) and included Pierre-Benoît Pabot du Chatelard and Maroussia Cuny on the financing, and Katia Gruzdova (counsel) on tax aspects.
Allen & Overy has acted for the lenders on a jumbo USD 1.3bn prepayment facility in favour of Glencore Energy UK Ltd for advance payments for crude oil purchases from the national oil company of the Republic of Chad, Société des Hydrocarbures du Tchad (SHT).
Allen & Overy LLP has advised Goldman Sachs International, BNP Paribas and KKR Capital Markets Limited on issuing two tranches of high-yield bonds.
The Selecta Group issued EUR 350 million and CHF 245 million high-yield bonds each bearing a coupon of 6.50% via Selecta Group B.V. The fixed-interest high-yield bonds have a 5-year term and were sold to institutional investors in denominations of EUR 100,000 and CHF 150,000. The refinancing also included a EUR 50 million credit facility and a EUR 220 million PIK facility.
Slaughter and May advised Ocado Group plc (Ocado) on a new £100 million unsecured three year revolving credit facility with Abbey National Treasury Services Plc, Barclays Bank PLC, HSBC Bank plc and The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. The purpose of the new facility is to enhance Ocado’s flexibility to support its UK expansion.
CONTACTS
Financing: Matthew Tobin (partner), David Hay (associate); Tax: Gareth Miles (partner), Charles Osborne (associate)
International law firm Clifford Chance advised a group of banks, represented by UniCredit Bank AG and Banca IMI S.p.A., and UniCredit Bank AG as lead arranger, on the financing of the tender offer of Global Resorts SAS, a subsidiary of InvestIndustrial Group, and on the launch of this offer on all common shares and convertible bonds (OCEANE 2015) of Club Méditerranée. The tender offer was filed with the French market regulator AMF on June 30th.
Ashurst advised a banking consortium led by IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG and Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft on the granting of two new credit lines to German supplier of affordable jewellery, Amor. The lines are planned to be used for, inter alia, the repayment of other liabilities of the group.
The lender consortium also comprised Norddeutsche Landesbank Luxembourg S.A., BHF-BANK Aktiengesellschaft, WGZ BANK AG Westdeutsche Genossenschafts-Zentralbank, KBC Bank Deutschland AG and Raiffeisen Bank International AG.
Ashurst is advising Rothschild in relation to the £196 million recommended cash offer by De Persgroep Publishing N.V. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of De Persgroep N.V.) for Mecom Group plc, announced today. Mecom is a European media group, with leading positions in the news and information publishing business in the Netherlands and Denmark. Rothschild is acting as lead financial adviser to De Persgroep in relation to the offer.
A team led by finance partners Robin Spender and Phil Abbott, including banking associate Aleksandra Cison and trainee solicitor Charlotte Hilton, with support from corporate senior associate Tom Ward, real estate associate Paul Olliff and tax associate Jennifer Martin, has advised the Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance team on the financing of the management buy-out of ASK4 by Darwin Private Equity.
Ashurst has advised Crédit Agricole CIB, acting as the sole arranger and bookrunner, in connection with the sale of the Sermeta Group (formerly Giannoni France) by Carlyle, to co-founder Joseph Le Mer.
The transaction will result in Joseph Le Mer regaining the control of the Sermeta Group, with Bpifrance, Arkéa Capital Partenaire and Unexo participating as co-investors. The Sermeta Group specializes in manufacturing heat exchangers for boilers. Carlyle has therefore sold 65 % of the share capital, which it has held since 2010.