Lovells, Norton Rose handed lead roles on Asian investors' Barclays ventures

Lovells and Norton Rose have played key roles in injecting Chinese and Singaporean cash into Barclays.

China Development Bank has agreed to buy £1.5bn worth of Barclays' new ordinary shares, the equivalent of 3.1 per cent of the bank's current issued share capital. If Barclays' bid for ABN Amro is successful the Chinese bank will subscribe for a further £5.1bn of shares.

Barclays turned to regular adviser Clifford Chance for the transaction, while China Development Bank received advice from a Norton Rose team led by corporate finance partner Martin Scott.

The deal is significant as it represents the bank's first major investment outside China.

Scott said: "China Development Bank was established by the Chinese state. A lot of its activity involves funding infrastructure projects in China.

"This is an important step because it's a very big transaction outside China and is also about forming a strategic partnership with Barclays."

The Norton Rose team, which won the instruction after being recommended by China Development Bank's financial adviser Blackstone, included a number of lawyers in the London, Beijing, Hong Kong and Amsterdam offices.

In a separate transaction, Singapore's Temasek Holdings will take a £1bn stake in Barclays with the agreement to buy a further £1.5bn of shares upon the successful completion of the ABN Amro takeover. Lovells acted for Temasek, the Singapore government's investment arm, with corporate finance partner Hugh Nineham and US securities partner Katherine Mulhern leading.