Members of Cadwalader's private equity team bring a "combination of experience and perspective" to matters
- Chambers USA

Cadwalader's Private Equity practice has established itself as a global leader in high profile private equity deals.  Our team represents many of the leading private equity firms in North America and Europe.  We deliver top quality deal execution, legal judgment and insight to sponsors that focus on domestic and international leveraged buyouts, structured equity investments, mezzanine investments, real estate investments, and growth capital investments. 

Attorneys in Cadwalader's Private Equity Group have acted as lead counsel in some of the largest leveraged buyouts on behalf of top tier private equity firms and consortiums.  Cadwalader also routinely plays a leading role in representing financial institutions in financing large, complex private equity transactions, and is able to provide private equity clients with deep financing and structuring expertise, with real-time market intelligence.  The attorneys in our other leading practice groups will typically provide relevant industry knowledge, as well as critical tax, employee benefits, antitrust, securities, real estate and structured finance expertise.

As a result of our skill, expertise, market insight and record of high profile transactions, our practitioners are internationally recognized leaders in their field: Practice Group Chair Ron Hopkinson has been consistently ranked in Chambers USA as a Leading Lawyer. Stewart Kagan, who leads sponsor-side financing, is also ranked by Chambers USA as a Leading Lawyer and Geoffrey Levin was recently honored by Institutional Investor News as one of the 10 Rising Stars of Private Equity and M&A Law.

Private Equity Transactions

Representations by attorneys in our Private Equity Group have included the following:

• Lyondell in its global plan of reorganization sponsored by Apollo, Access and Ares under which over $20 billion in debt was refinanced.
• Xerium Technologies, an Apax Portfolio company in its global restructuring, which involved the refinancing of over $600 million of debt.
• DoubleLine Capital in connection with the acquisition by Oaktree Capital of an approximately 20% interest in DoubleLine.
• CVC Capital Partners in its proposed $4.4 billion acquisition of the Barclays i-Shares ETF business.
• OrbiMed Advisors in its PIPE investment in Anthera Pharmaceuticals.
• CVC Capital Partners in the $2.3 billion take private acquisition of Univar, N.V.
• Ceva Global Logistics (Apollo portfolio company) in the $1.8 billion financing for its acquisition of EGL, Inc.
• Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe portfolio company Ozburn-Hessey Logistics in its acquisition of UK freight-forwarding company Activair PLC.
• Apollo Management in the acquisition of significant amounts of distressed debt.
• Xstrata Aluminum in their acquisition by Apollo Management for $1.1 billion.
• A consortium formed by The Carlyle Group and Welsh Carson in connection with their $7 billion acquisition of QwestDex.
• A consortium formed by The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P., and Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. in their $12 billion acquisition of VNU, Inc.
• The Carlyle Group in its acquisition of Hawaiian Telecom, Inc.
• Welsh Carson in connection with its acquisition of Caribe Information Investment, Inc.
• Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. in connection with its $27 billion sale to Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group.
• Dex Media, Inc. in connection with its $9.8 billion sale to R.H. Donnelly Corporation.
• Ambac Assurance Corporation as insurer in the $1.6 billion senior securitization relating to U.S. and international Dunkin Donuts' operations, as part of the acquisition of Dunkin' Donuts by a consortium of private equity firms.
• The Carlyle Group in connection with its acquisition of the aerostructures business of Northrop Grumman Corporation.
• Bear Stearns in The Blackstone Group's $3.1 billion acquisition of Extended Stay America.
• Bear Stearns in The Blackstone Group's $790 million acquisition of Prime Hospitality.
• Chairman and CEO of SS&C Technologies in Carlyle Group's $941 million acquisition of the company.
• AM General (a subsidiary of The Renco Group Inc.) in its $935 million sale to MacAndrews & Forbes Holding Inc.
• Pfizer Inc. in its $930 million sale of Schick-Wilkinson Sword to Energizer Holdings, Inc.
• Pfizer Inc. in its $575 million sale of in-vitro allergy autoimmune diagnostics unit to PPM Capital Ltd. and Triton.
• Bear Stearns in Grupo Elektra's $316 million acquisition of Comunicaciones Avanzadas, S.A.
• PPM Capital Ltd. in its $310 million acquisition of Sterigenics, Inc.
• An investor group, including Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, EnCap Investments (a unit of El Paso Energy), and Strome Investment Management, in the $110 million acquisition of Plains Resources Inc.