Dealmakers

UK: building value

Global law firm Norton Rose has acted for British house building company Crest Nicholson which last week announced its highly anticipated IPO and proposed listing on the Premium Segment of the London Stock Exchange.  
The IPO – which is the first major IPO of a UK domestic company so far this year - will value Crest Nicholson at approximately £553 million.
Partners Mark Lloyd Williams and Tom Vita led the Norton Rose Corporate team which also included Sarah McKellar who acted as principal assistant with Amy Reed, Robert Hatton, Jaycen Liao, Marina Petrova, Daniel Chaney, Jessica Blanchett and James Chester-Martin.
Clifford Chance acted for the Global Coordinators with Ashursts and Bingham acting for the institutional selling shareholders.

India: deal generator

Anglo-Australian law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has acted as international and US counsel to NTPC Limited - one of India's largest state-owned power generation companies - in connection with an offer for sale by the Government of India of a US$2.14 billion stake in NTPC.
The deal is set to be the biggest Indian government privatisation in the current fiscal year and the largest equity deal in India since March 2012.  
The Herbert Smith Freehills team consisted of Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan and Yuji Huang, together with Steve Thierbach.
Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Kotak Mahindra, Morgan Stanley and SBI Capital acted as brokers to the transaction.

UK: cash flow

Newly merged London law firm HowardKennedyFsi has advised entrepreneur Peter Dubens on the creation of Pembroke VCT plc which is looking to raise £25m on its first Offer for Subscription for the 2013/14 tax year.
According to a a statement by the firm, Pembroke will be managed by Mr Dubens’ Oakley Group and is expected to invest primarily in unquoted companies, although it may choose to invest in companies whose shares are traded on AIM or ISDX.  
Investment will be made in a diverse range of smaller consumer facing companies with the capability of organic growth and that will likely offer sustainable cash flow generation in the long term.  
The HowardKennedyFsi team was led by partner and head of capital markets Keith Lassman who was assisted by senior corporate solicitor Ian Scott.


Japan: big bond

London law firm Linklaters is advising Japanese financial services firm ORIX Corporation on its €1.9bn acquisition of Dutch asset manager Robeco Groep NV from Rabobank.
The magic circle firm is assisting on the deal which is ORIX’s most significant strategic acquisition to date, as well as the largest Japanese outbound deal of the year to date.
ORIX will acquire approximately 90.01 per cent of the shares of Robeco for ¥240.2 billion (equivalent to approximately €1.935 billion).
The Linklaters team, which involved lawyers from the firm’s Tokyo, Amsterdam, London, New York, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt and Hong Kong offices, was led by corporate partners Hiroya Yamazaki in Tokyo and Pieter Riemer and David Holdsworth in Europe.

Netherlands: Eurobond calling

VimpelCom Holdings has been advised by Washington DC law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld on a $2 billion Eurobond financing, including a RUB 12 billion tranche and two dollar-denominated tranches totalling $1.6 billion.  
VimpelCom Holdings is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Amsterdam-based telecommunications service VimpelCom, one of the world’s largest integrated telecommunications services operators.
Akin Gump partner Fred Heller led the team advising VimpelCom, supported by counsel Lisa Hearn and partner Robert Aulsebrook in London, partner Bruce Mendelsohn in New York and teams in London and Moscow.