In brief – February 2015

• Debevoise & Plimpton, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Slaughter and May have played key advisory roles on the USD4.2bn sale of insurance giant Catlin Group to XL Group.Skadden handled both the UK and US law aspects of the deal for New York-listed XL, with support from ASW Law in Bermuda.Debevoise and Slaughters acted for the Bermudan vendor Catlin, with support from Appleby on the Bermudan law aspects. The acquisition will be a two-step process comprising a Bermudan scheme of arrangement and a Bermudan merger.
• Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Moorfield Real Estate Fund on the sale of its diversified real estate investment portfolio to Lone Star Real Estate Fund, represented by Allen & Overy (A&O), for £1bn. The Herbert Smith Freehills team advising Moorfield Real Estate Fund was led by real estate partner Ian Cox and corporate partner Alex Kay. Channel Islands firm Ogier provided Jersey advice to Moorfield.
• Travers Smith is advising the UK’s largest online rail bookings company thetrainline.com as it prepares to go public later this year. The firm’s corporate head Spencer Summerfield is leading the advice for thetrainline.com owners Exponent, alongside corporate partners Adrian West and Charles Casassa. Herbert Smith Freehills corporate partner Chris Haynes and global head of capital markets Steve Thierbach have picked up a mandate from banks Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan