Dealmakers

US: musical chairs

London law firm SJ Berwin has advised Californian music giant Universal Music Group (UMG) on its sale of the German Parlophone Label Group to New York’s Warner Music Group for £487 million.
The sale followed the European Commission’s approval of UMG’s £1.2 billion acquisition of British company EMI Recorded Music in September, on which SJ Berwin also advised UMG.  
The Parlophone Label is comprised of the Parlophone and Chrysalis labels, as well as EMI recorded music operations in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia and Sweden.  Parlophone’s artists include Coldplay, David Guetta, Kylie Minogue, Pink Floyd and Tinie Tempah.
The SJ Berwin team was led by corporate partners Will Holder and Mark Sanders, with EU & Competition partners Stephen Kon and Philipp Girardet.

France: fusion funding

Global law firm Norton Rose has advised the EU agency, Fusion for Energy, on a contract in excess of €250 million for the design and construction of a tokamak reactor hall and associated infrastructure for a fusion reactor complex at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Project in Cadarache, France.
The agency was established to deliver the EU’s contribution to the €13 billion ITER Project, which is a groundbreaking collaboration in the energy sector, supported by the EU, USA, Russia, India, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
The ITER Project will see the construction of the largest experimental fusion reactor in the world.
The Norton Rose team was led by partners Donald Warnock and Andrew Buisson.

UK: not wasted

British waste-collection company Biffa has been advised by offshore law firm Ogier on its £1 billion restructuring deal.
According to the firm, the High Court approved a UK scheme of arrangement on 28 January which enabled the recapitalisation announced by the company last November to be successfully implemented. All senior and junior secured creditors voted to approve the scheme of arrangement.
The restructuring will see Biffa's secured debt reduced by more than 55 per cent and the injection of £75 million of new money. This new money enables the company to implement its planned investment programme of over £250m in the group over the next five years.
The Ogier Jersey legal team comprised of Chris Byrne, Bruce MacNeil, Emily Barette and Anna Cochrane and the Ogier Corporate Services team comprised of Stephen Langan, Cheryl Heslop and Emilie Cave. The Guernsey legal team comprised of Nick Gamble, Christopher Jones and Emily Fuller.
 
US: cable call

New York legal heavyweights Weil Gotshal & Manges and Davis Polk & Wardell are advising on a $16.7 billion deal that will see General Electric (GE) sell its 49 per cent stake in US media and entertainment giant NBCUniversal (NBCU) to majority shareholder Comcast Corporation.
According to Legal Week, the deal will see US cable operator Comcast pay NBCU $12bn in cash with $4bn in Comcast guaranteed debt and $700m of preferred stock in acquiring full ownership of the film and television business.
Weil - advising GE on the sale - fielded a team including corporate partners Howard Chatzinoff, Jennifer Bensch and Samuel Zylberberg, M&A partner Jackie Cohen and tax partner Kenneth Heitner.
Davis Polk is taking the lead role for Comcast with a team including partners David Caplan, Marc Williams, Avishai Shachar, Neil Barr, Thomas Patrick Dore and Jason Kyrwood is providing credit advice. The Davis Polk team is based across its New York and Menlo Park offices.
Final approval is expected to be confirmed before the end of the first quarter of 2013.

UK: blown away

The London office of international legal practice Norton Rose has advised Greencoat UK Wind on a £200 million IPO.
The company, an infrastructure fund managed by Greencoat Capital, says it plans to raise a minimum of £205 million through an initial public offering that will see it list on the London Stock Exchange.
The Norton Rose team included partners Stephen Rigby and Andrew Hedges who led on the acquisition and project finance aspects respectively.
Ashurst acted for RBC, Barclays and Winterflood and CMS acted for RWE.