Search results for

Simmons & Simmons added to its corporate group in London with the hire of Gavin Weir, a specialist in M&A, equity capital markets and corporate governance. Weir has particular experience of corporate finance transactions in the life sciences and financial institutions sectors. He was previously a senior associate in Allen & Overy's corporate department.

The timing couldn't be better. First there was the £8.2 billion ($14.6 billion) takeover of UK gas company BOC by German peer Linde, financed by a €15 billion bridge loan (more than double Linde's market capitalization), then there was German drug and chemical group Bayer's €16.3 billion purchase of rival Schering, involving high-yield debt, a convertible bond and a rights issue in its financing.

Greg Jordan, Reed Smith US firm Reed Smith and UK firm Richards Butler announced that they intend to merge. The deal, which is still subject to settling a merger agreement, due diligence and partnership votes slated for late May, would be completed by January 1 2007. The combined firm, which will operate under the name Reed Smith, would include approximately 1,300 lawyers and will have forecast total revenue of $725 million. According to the letter of intent Greg Jordan, Reed Smith's managing partner, will lead the combined firm.

The Latvian government has considered draft amendments to the Competition Law of 2001.

On March 13 2006, a bill concerning the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law (the FIEL) was submitted to the Diet. The FIEL will amend, with respect to various financial instruments, a number of statutes to ensure greater investor protection and to regulate traders dealing in financial instruments. Under the new regime, investor protection will be broadened and strengthened, but some regulations will be eased to reduce trading costs associated with excessive restriction. The FIEL is expected to come into effect within 18 months of its promulgation.

The restructuring of drugstore chain Ihr Platz has shown that the combination of an insolvency plan and self-administration can create fast-track restructuring in Germany, say Lars Westpfahl and Jochen Wilkens

A new way to buy out minority shareholders should make acquisitions in Germany simpler and quicker, say Matthias Horbach and Stefan Koch

The rules are slackening and the cash is piling up. It seems only a matter of time before a large German company is taken private, say Klaus Riehmer and Peter Wand

Elena Millerman and A David Reynolds note that US PPPs are being shaped by structures from US public finance and the international market

The National Bank of Greece (NBG) acquired a controlling stake in Finansbank, Turkey's eighth-largest bank, for $2.8 billion. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, led by corporate partner David Crook, advised NBG, with Pekin & Bayar providing Turkish counsel. Verdi ve Yazici advised Fiba Holding, which holds the untraded shares in Finansbank. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom acted for Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, the financial advisers to NBG.