Global law firm Reed Smith today announced that partner Troy Doyle and counsel Gerald Licnachan have joined the firm’s Singapore office, in the global Commercial Restructuring and Bankruptcy Group and the Energy and Natural Resources Group respectively. Troy joins the firm from DLA Piper (in Singapore), where he led the firm’s restructuring practice, while Gerald re-joins Reed Smith from his role as general counsel at Steppe Capital in Singapore More >>

Rodyk acted as Singapore counsel to Daiwa, a company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and together with certain entities held by Daiwa, in their roles as issue manager and underwriter in the initial public offering (the IPO) of Accordia Golf Trust (AGT) on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the SGX-ST), as well as trustee-manager and asset manager of AGT, in respect of certain issues relating to the Singapore Code of Takeovers and Mergers, substantial shareholding and other Singapore regulatory matters and security agreements. More >>

King & Wood Mallesons will further strengthen its global capability, and its Asian connections and capability, with its granting of a foreign law practice licence by the Attorney General’s Chambers.

The Singapore practice will have an initial focus on International Funds, Energy and Resources and China inbound and outbound work, providing clients with a different choice of top-tier international legal expertise for cross-border and domestic work in South East Asia, and supporting Singapore-based clients with their outbound investments. More >>

King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) will further strengthen its global capability, and its Asian connections and capability, with its granting of a foreign law practice licence by the Attorney General’s Chambers More >>

DLA Piper announced today that a team of three partners has joined the firm in its Corporate Group in Singapore. John Viverito and Myles Hankin are joining from Gibson Dunn, Singapore, and Joseph Bauerschmidt from Jones Day, Singapore. The three have worked together in the past and are reuniting as colleagues at DLA Piper. Each of John, Joe and Myles are ranked experts in their fields by Chambers and other leading legal guides. More >>

Latham & Watkins has advised PT Pertamina (Persero) in the signing of a series of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the upgrade and expansion of five refinery facilities in Indonesia at an estimated cost of approximately US$25 billion. The MOUs were signed with Saudi Aramco, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec), and JX Nippon Oil and include the redevelopment of the Cilicap, Balongan, Plaju, Dumai and Balikpapan refineries. More >>

Morrison & Foerster is advising Global Logistic Properties Limited (GLP), the leading provider of modern logistics facilities in China, Japan and Brazil, in a co-investment with an affiliate of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte. Ltd. to buy one of the largest logistics real estate portfolios in the United States from the Blackstone Group. The US$8.1 billion deal marks GLP’s first foray into the U.S. market. As detailed in GLP’s press release, the transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015. More >>

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised COFCO Corporation on the closing of two concurrent global acquisitions, being 51% of Noble Agri Limited for an initial purchase price of US$1.5 billion and 51% of Nidera Capital B.V. for approximately US$1.3 billion. Both Noble Agri and Nidera acquisitions became wholly unconditional on 30 September and were completed and settled on 14 October.

Noble Agri, which was the global agricultural platform of the Singapore listed Noble Group, mainly engages in the origination, storage, processing, transportation, distribution and trading of grain and oilseeds, soft commodities and sugar by originating from low-cost producing regions such as Brazil, Argentina and the Black Sea region, and supplying to markets with high demand such as China, India and Middle East. More >>

Allen & Overy has advised Emperador Inc, a subsidiary of Alliance Global Group Inc., one of the largest Philippines conglomerates, on its acquisition of Whyte & Mackay Group from United Spirits Limited, a company listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, for an enterprise value of approximately GBP430 million.

Emperador’s purchase of Whyte & Mackay ranks as one of the biggest overseas acquisitions by a Philippine company in recent years. The transaction was the result of a competitive auction process arising from a UK competition enquiry and subsequent ruling following Diageo PLC’s acquisition of a significant stake in United Spirits in 2013. More >>