Walder Wyss Ltd.

Auris Medical Holding AG (NASDAQ: EARS) issued and priced its public offering of 10,000,000 common shares and 10,000,000 warrants, each warrant entitling its holder to purchase 0.70 of a common share.  The common shares and warrants are being sold in units comprised of one common share and one warrant at the public offering price of USD 1.00 per unit. The warrants will be immediately exercisable at a price of USD 1.20 per common share and are exercisable for five years. In connection with the offering, the Company has granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,500,000 additional common shares and/or 1,500,000 additional warrants at the public offering price less underwriting discounts. The offering is expected to close on or about February 21, 2017, subject to customary closing conditions. Roth Capital Partners is acting as sole book-running manager in the offering. Maxim Group LLC is acting as a financial advisor in the offering. Auris Medical is a Swiss biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing therapeutics that address important unmet medical needs in otolaryngology. The shares of Auris Medical trade on the NASDAQ Global Market. Walder Wyss advises Auris Medical on Swiss law aspects of the transaction. The team is being led by Alex Nikitine (Partner, Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A) and further includes Sarah Schulthess (Associate, Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A), Janine Corti (Counsel, Tax) and Ayesha Curmally (Partner, Notary). Davis Polk & Wardwell advises Auris Medical on US law aspects. Cooley (as to US law) and Pestalozzi (as to Swiss law) act as legal advisors to Roth Capital Partners.

Credit Suisse (Switzerland) Ltd. was incorporated with the purpose to be organized as a Swiss bank. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Credit Suisse AG. The transfer of assets and liabilities according to Swiss merger law became effective on 20 November 2016. The transfer was aimed to evolve the legal entity structure of the Credit Suisse Group to meet regulatory requirements for systematically important banks.

BASF acquires Rolic, a Swiss based group offering innovative and forward-thinking solutions, particularly in the display and security industries as well as the optical film business.

gategroup successfully raised CHF 300 million through the issuance of a fixed rate 5-year senior bond with a final maturity on February 28, 2022. The bond with a coupon of 3% p.a. has been issued by gategroup Finance (Luxembourg) S.A. and is guaranteed by its parent company gategroup Holding AG. gategroup will apply for the listing of the new bond on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

RWS Holdings plc, a world leading provider of intellectual property support services (patent translations, international patent filing solutions and searches), commercial translations and linguistic validation, has completed the acquisition of 100% of LUZ, Inc., a market leading Life Sciences language services provider based in San Francisco, for a cash consideration of USD82.5m.

Cembra Money Bank has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of SWISSBILLING. The transaction is expected to close within the first quarter of 2017. The transaction consideration was below CHF 10 million and is expected to have a negative impact of 0.1% on the Group’s CET1 ratio as at closing.

Transports publics fribourgeois Trafic (TPF TRAFIC) SA closed the financing of its maintenance and exploitation centre in the canton of Fribourg. The financing was partly made through a CHF 40 mio. private placement, a CHF 32 mio. secured bank loan and a CHF 55 mio. unsecured bank loan.

The Migros Group, through Mérat & Cie. SA, has acquired Tipesca SA, a company incorporated in the canton of Tessin. Tipesca offers a wide range of fish products.

Japan-based Sharp Corporation, part of Taiwan’s Foxconn Group, enters into a strategic business alliance with Skytec Group Limited (“Skytec”) regarding the manufacture and sale of Sharp branded products and services in Europe. For that purpose, Sharp acquires a majority stake of 56.7% in the newly incorporated joint venture Skytec UMC Ltd.

Bischofszell Nahrungsmittel AG, a company of the Migros Group, has acquired a majority interest in Sushi Mania SA, a company incorporated in the canton of Fribourg. Sushi Mania specialises in Japanese cuisine and Asian gastronomy.

Zug Estates Holding AG (SIX: ZUGN) has successfully issued its first CHF 100 mio. fixed-interest bond with a 0.7% coupon and a 5-year maturity.

Baloîse (SIX: BALN) is to acquire a majority stake in publicly listed real-estate company Pax Anlage AG (SIX: PAXN). By entering into agreements with majority shareholders Pax Holding (Genossenschaft), Pax, Schweizerische Lebensversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG and Nürnberger Lebensversicherung AG, Baloîse Life Ltd will acquire around 70 per cent of the share capital and voting rights. Today, Baloîse published the pre-announcement of a public takeover offer for the remaining approx. 30 per cent of shares in free float at a price of CHF 1,600 per share (subject to dilution effects). The aggregate transaction value amounts to approx. CHF 288 mio. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.

Intershop has acquired the World Trade Center Lausanne as per 1 December 2016 for a purchase price of CHF 105.5 million. The acquisition represents one of the largest real estate M&A transactions in Switzerland during 2016.

Mercury Systems, a NASDAQ listed leading commercial provider of secure processing subsystems, acquires the Swiss mission computing company Creative Electronic Systems (CES).

Swiss insurtech startup FinanceFox has successfully completed its Series A financing round with Target Global and Horizons Ventures as lead investors. The financing round also included the conversion of existing venture loan investments from, amongst others, Salesforce Ventures. Idinvest, Speedinvest and AngelList.

The independent private investment company Ardian has won the bidding for the Germany based lighting maker SLV. Ardian entered into an agreement with Cinven to acquire SLV. The completion of the transaction is subject to approval of the applicable anti-trust authorities.

Dr. Michael Cartier was elected as an officer of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA) for the years 2016 to 2022. Dr. Michael Cartier has previously been Chair of the IPBA TMT Committee from 2013 to 2016. The IPBA is an international association of business and commercial lawyers with a strong interest in the Asia-Pacific Region. It was established in April 1991 and has over 1400 members from over 65 national jurisdictions throughout the world.

With decision dated 6 October 2016, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court fully rejected a motion to set aside an arbitral award. The decision resulted from a dispute in the amount of about USD 35 million concerning the aviation industry.

Simultaneously with a capital increase a group of investors led by Nikolaus Wein and Yves Latour has acquired a majority stake in Lunchgate AG from its founders. Lunchgate, Switzerland’s leading restaurant platform, was founded in 2009 as ICT startup and has developed a comprehensive product portfolio for restaurateurs and gastronomy groups.