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Clifford Chance Elects Four New Partners in the Americas

18.05.12

NEW YORK, Apr 27, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Clifford Chance today announced the election of 27 lawyers to its global partnership, including four from the Americas region: Jason Myers, Mark Pesso, Anand Saha and Christopher Willott. With their elevation, Clifford Chance's Americas partnership increases to 74.

"We are extremely happy to welcome four more outstanding lawyers into our partnership," said Craig Medwick, regional managing partner for Clifford Chance in the Americas. "Each of these attorneys has delivered excellent advice for many years, earning the respect and trust of clients and colleagues along the way. Their appointments also indicate our firm's continuing commitment to delivering strong, steady growth in both the U.S. and Latin America."

Myers is a partner in the Capital Markets practice in New York, focusing on public and private capital markets transactions and other corporate finance and general corporate transactions in the real estate, hospitality and specialty finance sectors. He has advised sponsors, investment banks, REITs, specialty finance companies, and business development companies in their capital raising activities, including initial public offerings, follow-on equity and debt transactions, 144A offerings and other private placements and PIPEs, raising more than US$4 billion in the past few years. As a key member of Clifford Chance's Tier One-rated U.S. REITs practice, Myers frequently advises clients on large and complex IPOs. In recent years, he has represented CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust in its initial and follow-on public offerings, and advised the underwriters in the initial and follow-on public offerings of Colony Financial, Inc. He earned a BA in political science and psychology from the University of Minnesota and a JD from Fordham University School of Law, where he served as the Managing Editor of the Fordham Law Review.

Source: MarketWatch (press release)

A Strong Quarter at Home for Ford

18.05.12

New CFO Bob Shanks, who replaced the recently retired Lewis Booth, gave analysts and media some highlights of the quarter during a conference call on Friday morning. In a nutshell:

North America: Sales at home continued to be the "engine" of Ford's profits. Ford North America's pre-tax profit of $2.1 billion was up $289 million from a year ago, and was its highest profit in North America since Ford started reporting the division's result separately in 2000. Strong sales and high margins -- helped by stinginess on incentives -- continue to validate the company's "One Ford" product strategy , which is now bearing fruit in a big way at home . South America: Ford South America made $54 million, down from $210 million a year ago. Higher costs and unfavorable exchange rates were the key challenges here, though Ford remains optimistic about the region going forward. Europe : Ford Europe's results stunk, but that's no surprise.

Source: DailyFinance