IK VII Fund has reached an agreement to acquire NeTel from Axcel and management. The transaction is subject to customary competition approval.

Founded in 2000, NeTel has grown to become a leading Nordic service provider for communication and electrical networks. The company offers turnkey solutions, including e.g. planning, project management and maintenance of communication and electrical networks. With presence in Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Baltics and around 340 employees, NeTel generated pro forma revenues of approximately MSEK 1,500 in 2015.

The Firm is representing Groupe Fnac S.A. (“Fnac”), a leading French electronics retailer, in connection with its offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Darty plc (“Darty”). Fnac’s final offer for Darty (“Fnac’s Final Offer”), which was announced on 25 April 2016, followed a long-running bidding battle with Conforama Investissement SNC, a division of South African conglomerate Steinhoff International (“Steinhoff”).

Gleiss Lutz has advised the French group Valeo on its acquisition of FTE automotive, a leading producer of clutch and gear actuators, headquartered in Germany. The purchase price amounts to EUR 819.3 million. Following the acquisition of automotive supplier Peiker, the acquisition of the Spheros Group and the planned joint venture with Siemens, this is the fourth transaction within the last six months that Gleiss Lutz has successfully concluded for Valeo.

Addleshaw Goddard has advised existing client CE Mining Fund II L.P. ('CEII'), a specialised mining and mineral investment fund whose investment adviser is Plinian Capital Limited, on its Takeover Code-compliant majority investment in Rambler Metals & Mining PLC ('Rambler'), a North American copper-gold mining company which is dual-listed on AIM and the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V).

As reported in Reuters and other media outlets, Paul, Weiss client Temasek Holdings Limited, Singapore's state-owned investment firm, acquired $500 million of ADRs in Alibaba Group Holdings Limited from SoftBank Group.

Squire Patton Boggs has advised Imperial Mobility International B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Imperial Holdings Limited, on a conditional agreement, with Phoenix Equity Partners Limited to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of Palletways Group Limited and its subsidiary undertakings, for an enterprise value consideration of £162.9 million.

Leading the Squire Patton Boggs team in Leeds was Corporate partner Richard Hunt, assisted by Corporate associate Hannah Graham and Tax Strategy & Benefits partner Peter Morley.

Davis Polk advised China Cinda Asset Management Co., Ltd. (“Cinda”) on U.S. regulatory matters in connection with its HK$68 billion acquisition of Nanyang Commercial Bank, Limited (“NCB”) from BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Limited, a subsidiary of Bank of China Limited, which closed on May 30, 2016.

The law firm PLMJ advised Sonova Holding AG in Portugal on its acquisition of Audionova B.V. for EUR 830 million. Sonova, which is based in Switzerland, is the world’s largest manufacturer of hearing aids, and Audionova is one of the biggest hearing aid retail groups in Europe. Audionova has more than 1300 shops in eight European countries, and it achieved sales of around EUR 360 million in 2015.

On 25 May 2016, the Luxembourg based Banque Havilland SA completed the acquisition of Banque Pasche SA, from CIC Lyonnaise de Banque, Lyon (France).

With this acquisition, Banque Havilland establishes a presence in Switzerland. The parties entered into a sale and purchase agreement in 2015, which was subject to the FINMA approval. Prior to the purchase of Banque Pasche SA, Banque Havilland acquired in 2014 subsidiaries of Banque Pasche, inter alia in Liechtenstein and The Bahamas.

Retroactive to October 2015, private equity investor HPE Growth Capital acquired, by way of a capital increase of up to EUR 30 million, a minority stake in AEVI, a subsidiary of Wincor Nixdorf AG.

Wincor Nixdorf is a global provider of IT solutions and services for retail banks and trade companies. AEVI provides global solutions for payment transactions as well as a market place for high quality value-added apps and services (value-added apps and services; VAAS).