Austria: steel deal

Austrian steel company voestalpine has been advised by national law firm Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati on an exchange offer for hybrid notes.
voestalpine invited all holders of 2007 Hybrid Notes (with a nominal value of €1 billion) to offer to exchange their notes for new 2013 Hybrid Notes with a volume of
up to €500 million.
According to CHSH, more than 70 per cent of investors wanted to exchange their notes.
It is the first capital market transaction of its kind in Austria not to offer to buy back notes for cash, but exclusively to offer to exchange them for a new hybrid instrument.
CHSH acted as transaction counsel to voestalpine for whom it drafted an issuance programme in 2012 which made such an exchange programme possible, and it also advised the banking consortium led by Erste Group.
The team at CHSH consisted of partner Volker Glas and Christian Aichinger.

UK: cable buy

The London office of New York law firm Debevoise & Plimpton has advised cabling manufacturer HellermannTyton on its London listing, which went live on 26 March.
In a statement, the firm said that the listing comes seven years after private equity fund Doughty Hanson acquired HellermannTyton for £332million in 2006. HellermannTyton priced the IPO at 195p per share, valuing the business at £419.9million.
The listing involved Doughty Hanson selling some of its existing stake, reducing it from 95.5 per cent to 46.1 per cent.  
The Debevoise team was led by David Innes, a London based corporate partner and head of the UK private equity group.

France: Safran shares

Paris-headquartered law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel has acted as counsel to the French State on the sale of 13 million of its shares in French aerospace company Safran, representing 3.12 per cent of its share capital.
According to Gide, the sale was structured as a private placement to institutional investors by means of an accelerated bookbuilding.  
Gide partner Melinda Stege Arsouze, along with Stéphane Jaffré and Théophile Strebelle handled the capital markets aspects of the deal, with partner Jean-Emmanuel Skovron handling corporate aspects.

Germany: clinical advisor

Magic circle law firm Clifford Chance has advised European financial investor Chequers Capital, Paris, on the acquisition of domestic intensive care company Deutsche Fachpflege Holding and related financing.
Munish-based Deutsche Fachpflege Holding offers out-of-clinic intensive care via seven subsidiaries to patients based in the German federal states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, North-Rhine Westphalia and Saxony.
The CC team was led by partner Burc Hesse (corporate/private equity, Munich) and included partners Barbara Mayer-Trautmann and Thomas Weitkamp.

Australia: pepper pot

Leading Australian non-lender bank Pepper has been advised by Herbert Smith Freehills on its acquisition and financing of an AU$250 million small balance commercial mortgage loan portfolio from a major international lender as the lender expands its specialised lending capabilities into a new asset class.
The HSF team was led by partner Mark Crean, with support from senior associates Mark Currell and Cameron Mitcham.