Private Equity & Buyouts
Attorneys in Sonnenschein’s Private Equity & Buyouts Practice have extensive experience counseling private equity funds in all aspects of their formation, transactional and compliance needs. In a rapidly evolving regulatory environment, we provide our clients with comprehensive solutions that maximize available business, tax and strategic efficiencies and opportunities. Sonnenschein’s private equity attorneys have been recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers for providing results-driven, pragmatic guidance.
Private Equity & Buyouts Services:
- Fund formation, including offshore and master-feeder structures
- Capital raising
- Portfolio company acquisitions and dispositions, including cross-border and tax-free rollover transactions
- Senior and mezzanine financing
- Leveraged recapitalization transactions
- Acquisitions of distressed companies and restructuring transactions
- Tax structuring of management incentive compensation
- Regulatory compliance
- ERISA plan asset and UBTI concerns
Our clients include middle market private equity funds and their portfolio companies, financial institutions, and Fortune 500 companies that have formed private equity and venture capital vehicles.
In addition, we call upon the experience and relationships of our health care, financial services, insurance, communications and other regulatory lawyers to execute deals in highly regulated industries with efficiency.
Of particular note to our clients is the strategic counsel provided by our Public Law & Policy Strategies team. As global regulation of the financial landscape rapidly evolves, our team is providing clients with real-time intelligence on issues such as investment advisor registration and the taxation of carried interest provisions so they can stay abreast of -- and ahead of -- shifts which may affect their business.
Representative Transactions
- Represented Ariston Global, a portfolio company of Spire Capital, in its acquisition of ACE*COMM Corporation, a global provider of advanced operations support systems and value added services solutions, and related financing by BIA Digital Partners II LP.
- Represented Bolder Capital in its acquisition of Diversified Clinical Services, a clinical wound care treatment business located in Jacksonville, Florida and the senior credit facility for the acquisition. The transaction resulted in Bolder doubling its existing wound care operations business.
- Represented Jordan Industries, Inc., and its subsidiary, Kinetek, Inc., in the sale of the Kinetek operating division to The Resolute Fund, in a multi-million dollar transaction involving a series of subsidiary forward cash mergers and asset sales. Kinetek and its operating companies are market leaders in advanced design and manufacturing of a variety of motors, components, and control systems.
- Represented MVP Capital Partners it is acquisition of Air Evac, an air ambulance company.
- Represented PrimeSource Building Products, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Itochu International Inc., in connection with its acquisition of Terminal Commercial Company (d/b/a Pacific Steel & Supply), a building supply company.
- Represented Resolute Funds Limited in its acquisition of CEDRA Corporation.
- Represented Sonitrol Holding LLC and an ownership group comprised of Spire Capital Partners, Carlyle Venture Partners and Wachovia Capital Partners in Sonitrol’s sale to The Stanley Works. Sonitrol, a leading provider of security monitoring services, access control and fire detection systems, is the 8th largest electronic security company in the United States.
- Represented an entity owned by Spire Capital Partners and an affiliate of Credit Suisse in connection with the acquisition and related financing of Just Marketing International, a global leader in motorsports marketing.
- Represented Spire Capital Partners in the acquisition of Professional Bull Riders, the leading major league sports franchise for bull riding in North America.
- Represented a group of investors led by Spire Capital Partners in the acquisition and financing of SkyMall, Inc. from parent company Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. SkyMall publishes America’s largest in-flight catalog, reaching 650 million air passengers annually on 14 U.S. airlines.
- Represented Spire Capital Partners in the sale of National Underwriter, a group of trade publications and related conferences focused on the insurance and banking sectors, to Windpoint Partners, a private equity fund.
- Representation of a subsidiary of Summit Business Media in the acquisition of certain of WiesnerMedia’s publications.
