Law firm hails completion of £3.1bn worth of deals in a year

The Edinburgh office of UK law firm Burges Salmon said Scottish lawyers from across the firm's built environment, energy and utilities, transport and financial services sectors completed over 90 transactions, totalling more than £3.1bn in the past 12 months.
The firm said 34 per cent of the team's work this year involved international elements with Burges Salmon continuing to work with its global preferred firm network of independent firms to implement a variety of complex cross-border transactions in jurisdictions like the US, Canada, China, Taiwan, South Africa and much of Europe.
The firm's real estate team completed a large number of Built Environment deals. Notable mentions include working with international client Panox, one of Europe's largest hotel property owners, on its £49 million acquisition of the DoubleTree by Hilton Edinburgh City Centre and acting on the £45m purchase of offices at Prime 4, the business park and global energy services hub in Aberdeen.
The team facilitated deals on behalf of UK and global clients including Finnish company UPM Raflatac on its £146m acquisition of UK-based Metamark, Clean Energy Cap Ltd, a private-wire renewable energy company on its landmark investment from True Green Capital Management, and Gooch and Housego Plc, the specialist manufacturer of optical components and systems on its acquisition of Phoenix Optical.
On the banking and Finance side, the team advised on the long-term financing of a 106 megawatt wind farm in the Scottish Highlands.
World's first soft robots to 'walk off' 3D printer
Scientists in Scotland have created the first soft robots that can walk straight out of the machines that make them.
The flexible, four-legged devices were developed using a new 3D printing system, which could pave the way for the use of intelligent soft robotic systems with no electronic parts.
Soft machines – made from compliant materials such as soft plastics – have huge potential for use in areas such as nuclear decommissioning, the biomedical sector and in space, researchers say.
A lack of standardised design and manufacturing processes, expense and the need for specialist expertise has so far limited real-world use of the devices, experts say.
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