Corporate finance partner Delphine Currie of SJ Berwin has advised investment vehicle Dawnay Shores Hotels on the acquisition of UK hotel chain Paramount Hotels from private equity firm Alchemy Partners for £215m. Macfarlanes acted for Alchemy, fielding a team under corporate partner Simon Perry and tax partner Elizabeth Sherwood. DLA advised minority shareholders, under corporate partner Wendy Harrison.

Corporate partner Richard Godden led the Linklaters team advising UK IT solutions provider Morse as it agreed to acquire Diagonal in a deal which values the IT consulting group at £50.2m. Osborne Clarke corporate partner Andrew Saul acted for Diagonal.

James Gould, a corporate partner at Jones Day, acted on the £32m management buy-out of UK cinema chain Ster Century on behalf of the management team. The purchase was backed by unnamed investors. The vendors, UK private equity firms Arlington Group and Inflexion Private Equity, were advised by Ashurst corporate partner Bruce Hanton.

Taylor Wessing corporate partner Tim Eyles oversaw the £14.15m acquisition by UK chemical group Johnson Matthey, of chemical catalogue specialist Lancaster Synthesis, from Switzerland-based Clariant. The vendor was advised by Hammonds corporate partner Andrew Pike.

Baker & McKenzie, led by partners Charles Whitefoord and Bernard Sharp, advised Bayard Capital subsidiary Bayard Energy, over the agreed buy-out of Swiss-based Landis & Gyr, believed to be for more than € 100m (£66m). Vendor Demag Holding was advised by Hengeler Mueller, with partner Jochen Vetter leading the team. Latham & Watkins Frankfurt corporate partner Hans-Juergen Luett advised Bayard in Germany.