Dealmakers

US: butter be good

Minneapolis law firm Faegre Baker Daniels has advised Hormel Foods Corporation on its acquisition of the Skippy peanut butter business for approximately $700 million.
The deal sees the Austin, Minnesota food giant also take control of related manufacturing facilities in Little Rock in Arkansas  and  Weifang in China from Unilever United States.
The Skippy line consists of 11 varieties of shelf-stable peanut butter products. Hormel – renowned for its production of Spam luncheon meat - plans to grow its branded presence in non-meat protein products, while reinforcing its balanced portfolio.
The Faegre Baker Daniels team was led by M&A partners George Martin and Ryan Miske.

India: QIP first

London-based global law firm Allen & Overy has advised Citibank, JP Morgan and Axis Capital as book runners on Axis Bank's $1 billion qualified institutions placement (QIP).
The QIP involved a private placement of shares under Section 4(a)(2) of the US Securities Act to investors in the United States and a Regulation S offering outside the United States.
Mumbai-based Axis Bank also made a preferential allotment to some of its principal shareholders, taking the total amount of equity capital raised by this deal to around $1.03 billion.
The offering is the largest-ever QIP out of India and marks a revival of the Indian equity markets which have been waning in recent years.
The magic circle firm’s team was led by Hong Kong partners Andrew Harrow and Jim Grandolfo.
Other law firms on the transaction included Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co and Luthra & Luthra Law Offices, advising Axis Bank and the book runners, respectively, as Indian counsel.

France: Paris calling

French telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent has been advised by a host of international firms in connection with the closing of the group's €2 billion senior secured credit facilities.
French firm Lefèvre Pelletier & associés advised Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent on local intellectual property law with a team led by Xavier Pican, while Kirkland & Ellis acted as lead US counsel to Alcatel-Lucent.
London magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised the company on matters of French law while Latham & Watkins acted for Credit Suisse AG and Goldman Sachs Bank USA which managed the syndication.

Germany: flat packed

Munich-headquartered law firm Noerr has advised German building materials company Pfleiderer on the sale of its Russian business to companies of the IKEA Group.
According to Noerr, the entire volume of the transaction is around €200 million.
The IKEA Group intends to secure with the new production facility the supply of fibreboard to the Russian IKEA suppliers.
Noerr corporate partner Holger Alfes led the firm’s team in the transaction.
The commercial negotiations for the seller were conducted mainly by Hans-Joachim Ziems and Elmar Geissinger of Ziems & Partner.