Private Equity

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has one of the world's premier private equity practices, representing a wide range of clients, including many of the largest and most active financial sponsors, sovereign wealth funds and financial institutions.  Our global practice benefits from coordinated teams of lawyers in all of our offices.  Our private equity practice includes both fund formation and deal execution.

Our fund formation teams are part of our Investment Funds practice group.  We have cutting-edge expertise in the organization of private investment funds and fund management companies.  We represent all of the key participants in private funds, including investment managers, sponsors and seed investors, lead investors, funds of funds, gatekeepers and advisers, placement agents and co-investors.  We also dedicate significant resources to servicing our fund manager clients in areas other than fund organization, including internal partnership arrangements, tax planning, regulatory compliance and corporate governance.  Finally, we have substantial experience in transactions involving funds, including mergers and acquisitions of fund management companies, spin-outs, financings, distressed manager transactions, seed sponsor investments and secondary transactions.

Our deal execution teams are part of our Mergers and Acquisition practice group.  We handle deals for our private equity clients ranging from venture and growth capital transactions through multi-billion dollar club deals.  In close coordination with lawyers in other practice areas, we provide a comprehensive service including the negotiation and documentation of deals, tax structuring, acquisition finance, corporate governance and management equity.  We work closely with our clients' portfolio companies on a wide range of corporate transactions, including business and financial restructurings, add-on acquisitions and leveraged recaps.  We handle private equity exit transactions, including trade sales and IPOs.  Because of our international reach, we work on some of the most complex multi-jurisdictional deals.

Our private equity client list includes many of the world's leading financial sponsors including:  Arcapita, Aurora Capital, Blackstone, Borse Dubai, Brazos Private Equity Partners, Candover Investments, Carlyle Group, Catterton Partners, Colony Capital, Equest, Evercore Partners, Global Leisure Partners, Gores Group, Green Equity Investors, Gulf Capital, Investcorp, L Capital Partners, Marlin Equity Partners, Odyssey Investment Partners, One Equity Partners, Silver Lake Partners, Waha Capital and Whitney & Co.  Our sovereign wealth clients include, among others, Kuwait Investment Authority, Dubai Group, Invest AD and Bahrain Mumtalakat.

Representative Deals:

• Represented Global Leisure Partners in its $27.2 billion acquisition of Harrah's Entertainment with co-investor, Apollo Management.
• Represented Kuwait Investment Authority in several investments including: an investment of $3 billion as part of $12.5 billion investment group in Citigroup Inc.; an investment of $2 billion in Merrill Lynch as part of a $6.6 billion investment group; an investment of $3 billion investment in depositary shares representing 7% Non-Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock of Citigroup Inc.
• Represented Borse Dubai in its $7 billion acquisition of OMX and stakes in Nasdaq Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange, and subsequent sale of OMX to Nasdaq Stock Market.
• Represented Green Equity Investors IV, L.P. in its $1.3 billion acquisition of The Sports Authority, a sporting goods retailer.
• Represented Investcorp Bank BSC in its $1.26 billion sale of Hilding Anders, a mattress manufacturer, to Candover Investments.
• Represented Global Leisure Partners in its $1.15 billion acquisition of Sisal, an Italian betting and lottery group, with co-investors, Apax Partners and Permira.
• Represented Investcorp Bank BSC in its $1.13 billion acquisition of Icopal, a manufacturer and provider of roofing products and installation services, from an investor group including Axcel, Kirkbi, FIH Erhvervsbank and the Carlisle Companies.
• Represented The Carlyle Group in its $772 million acquisition of Synagro Technologies, a recycler of biosolids and other organic residuals.
• Represented Aurora Capital Group in its $530 million acquisition of Mitchell International, a provider of information, workflow and performance management solutions to the automotive insurance claims.
• Represented Aurora Capital Group in its $484 million acquisition of NuCO2, a provider of bulk carbon dioxide (CO2) products and services to the U.S. fountain beverage industry.
• Represented Arcapita Bank BSC in its $370 million sale of Arcapita affiliate, Roxar, a technology solutions provider to the oil and gas industry, to CorrOcean, a provider of monitoring technology systems and services to the oil and gas industry.
• Represented Investcorp Bank BSC in its $311 million acquisition of Moody International, a provider of inspection services and outsourced personnel supply to the oil and gas, mining and construction industries, from Close Brothers Private Equity.
• Represented First Reserve Corporation in its $300 million equity investment in Osage Bio Energy to construct four bio-refining facilities to produce ethanol and a specialty protein feed.
• Represented Riverstone Holdings, LLC in its $240 million investment in Companhia Nacional de Açucar e Álcool, a joint venture between Santa Elisa and Global Foods Holding, to develop an ethanol production facility in Brazil.
• Represented AIG Global Investment Group in its $214 million acquisition of interest in a portfolio of 28 private equity funds from Eurazeo, a European investment company.
• Represented Brazos Private Equity Partners, LLC in its $180 million sale of portfolio company ORS Nasco, a wholesale distributor of industrial supplies, to United Stationers Supply.
• Represented Equest Balkan Properties plc in its $147 million sale of Sofia City Centre Mall, a retail mall, to Heitman European Property Partners III.
• Represented Odyssey Investment Partners, LLC in its $146 million acquisition of EAG, a manufacturer of analytical testing products, via tender offer.
• Represented One Equity Partners in its $123 million acquisition of a 49% stake in TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com from Lionsgate.
• Represented The Gores Group on an aggregate $50 million investment in First Communications, a US company listed on AIM.
• Represented Marlin Equity Partners in the $32 million acquisition of the Chelford Group by Solarsoft Acquisition Limited, a new company formed at the direction of Marlin Equity Partners.
• Represented Goldman Sachs as financial adviser to Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Inc. in its $1.3 billion acquisition by an affiliate of Bain Capital Partners, LLC.
• Represented Lazard Freres & Co. as financial adviser to Dollar General in its $7.3 billion acquisition by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and as financial adviser to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in its $9 billion equity investment in Morgan Stanley.
• Represented Barclays (formerly Lehman Brothers Inc.) as financial adviser to Entrust, Inc., a provider of software to secure digital identities and information, in its sale to Thoma Bravo, a private equity investment firm.
• Represented UBS Securities LLC as financial adviser to the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Harrah's Entertainment in its $27.8 billion acquisition by Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group.
• Represented UBS Investment Bank as financial adviser to Nova Chemicals, a chemicals and plastics manufacturer, in its $2.3 billion acquisition by International Petroleum Investment Company.

Recent Deals with Undisclosed Value:

• Represented Aurora Capital Group in the acquisition of RecoverCare and MedaSTAT USA in a merger-of-equals transaction led by Aurora Capital Group in partnership with Mark Binder, Chairman of Hollywood Capital and Moelis Capital Partners.
• Represented Aurora Resurgence Management Partners in the acquisition, via bankruptcy, of Norwood Promotional Products, a manufacturer of imprinted promotional products.
• Represented Catterton Partners in numerous transactions including: acquisition of Dr. Miracle's, a manufacturer of hair care products; acquisition of Miss Matched, a clothing company; sale of Frederic Fekkai, a manufacturer of luxury beauty products; its investment in Sweet Leaf Tea; and its acquisition of Restoration Hardware.
• Represented Evercore Partners, Inc. in numerous transactions including: the secondary sale of investments in five portfolio companies to Accretive Exit Capital Partners; acquisition of a majority interest in Bollinger, an insurance broker; secondary and primary sales of securities of Evercore's portfolio companies to Goldman Sachs; secondary sale of interests in Evercore's portfolio companies to Paul Capital Partners.
• Represented Investcorp Bank BSC in numerous transactions including: acquisition of CEME Group, a manufacturer of pumps and values, from Barclays Private Equity; acquisition, along with Barclays Private Equity, of N&W Global Vending, a manufacturer of vending machines, from Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity and Argan Capital Advisors; acquisition of Suomen Asiakastieto, a Finnish business and credit information company; acquisition via a management buyout of Randall-Reilly Publishing, a media and information company, from Wachovia Capital Partners.
• Represented Investcorp Technology Partners in its acquisition of Applied Innovation, a provider of network management solutions for the communications industry, by Keg Holdings, the parent company of portfolio company, Kentrox.
• Represented Axis Capital's affiliate, Navix, a Mexican financial institution (sofom) engaged in structured financing of Mexican infrastructure projects, in an equity investment in Navix by Eton Park Capital Management.
• Represented Brazos Equity Partners, LLC in the sale of portfolio company, Lone Star Overnight, a regional express package delivery company, to PNC Equity Partners.
• Represented Candover Investments plc in its acquisition of Alma Consulting Group, a provider of cost reduction and tax recovery services.
• Represented Colony Capital, Inc. in its acquisition of two Swiss hospitals, Clinique de Carouge and Hospital de la Tour, from HCA.
• Represented Equest Investments Balkans Limited in its acquisition of interests in K&K Electronics (Serbia) and K&K Electronics (Montenegro), retailers of household appliances and consumer electronics under the Technomarket brand.
• Represented L Capital Management LLC in its investment in IntelliPath, a provider of automated connectivity solutions; and in its investment with Battelle Ventures in Hi-G-Tek, a developer of a new active-RFID platform for real-time monitoring and control of high-value cargo and sensitive materials.
• Represented Tennenbaum & Co. LLC in connection with its investment in Online Resources Corporation and successful bid for three seats on the board of directors.  
• Represented Whitney & Co., LLC in its acquisition of Authentix, a developer of solutions for brand protection excise tax recovery, as part of an investor group including the Carlyle Group, Manti Resources and existing Authentix management team.