Corporate Transactions, Finance & Governance
The Squire Sanders corporate practice operates on a global basis. With approximately 350 corporate lawyers spread throughout our offices worldwide, our global footprint makes corporate expertise available to you anywhere, anytime.
Squire Sanders corporate lawyers advise large public and private companies, as well as emerging companies, around the world.
We represent nearly one-third of all Fortune 500 and FTSE 350 companies. Our lawyers have represented a wide variety of corporations, corporate officers, public bodies and private individuals in nonpublic regulatory proceedings, including FSA, SEC, NYSE and FINRA issues.
Our international corporate practice regularly receives praise in the legal press:
- The Best Lawyers in America 2011 notes 20 Squire Sanders corporate lawyers.
- Chambers Global 2010 recognizes Squire Sanders as a leading corporate practice in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, the Slovak Republic and Venezuela, as well as in the Dominican Republic for general business law.
- We are recommended by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific for our corporate/M&A work in China and Japan.
Our corporate practice has extensive experience in all areas of corporate activity including corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, public takeovers, IPOs and secondary offerings, partnership structures, private equity, venture capital, joint ventures, project support and company secretarial.
Our aim is to build long-term relationships with our clients and help them achieve their corporate objectives.
The main focuses of our corporate practice are as follows:
Mergers and Acquisitions
We have a large and diverse client base and advise listed companies, privately owned companies, management, entrepreneurs, private equity houses and institutions on national and cross-border mergers, acquisitions (including takeovers) and disposals. We adopt a proactive approach and invest in understanding the dynamics of the industry sectors within which our clients operate.
We provide an integrated offering from deal inception through post-completion matters across the Americas, Europe and Asia to ensure that our clients always have available to them strength and depth of expertise and resources.
Private Equity
Our private equity practice spans the Americas, Asia and Europe, and has a growing presence in the Middle East. Our team includes approximately 50 lawyers – many recognized as leaders in the field in their respective jurisdictions.
Our clients include leading equity houses and fund managers, private equity-backed companies, debt providers and management teams in a wide array of geographies and industries. The breadth and diversity of our practice keep us in close contact with current market standards and emerging trends in private equity transactions as they develop.
We have extensive experience advising on mainstream private equity transactions, growth and venture capital investments, mezzanine financings and turnaround situations. We also regularly counsel sponsors on the formation of investment funds and act for private equity-backed businesses looking to grow organically or by acquisition.
Practice Expertise
Representative Experience
- Serving as counsel to the Slovak Republic-based telecommunications company in a €170 million bond issue registered with the SEC and listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
- Representing the target in the US$4.5 billion merger of two large regional electric utilities to form a major US utility company.
- Advising Zeus Technology Ltd., a UK-based server software company, on its £110 million sale to US-based Riverbed Technology.
- Representing the publicly traded owner-operator of a nationally prominent group of seasonal amusement parks in its US$1.24 billion acquisition of a group of five large amusement parks. The purchase agreement was reached through intensive negotiations and an auction process that included more than 40 bidders. We also represented the client in a US$2 billion bridge financing for the cash transaction that closed simultaneously with the acquisition and in the subsequent US$2 billion permanent financing.
- Representing Ashland Inc., a Fortune 500 diversified chemical company, in its approximately US$3.3 billion acquisition (and related financing) of Hercules Incorporated, a global producer and marketer of specialty chemicals, creating a major global specialty chemicals company.
- Serving as counsel to the acquirer, a US-based producer of specialty materials for industry, in the US$130 million acquisition of a polymer modifiers business with plants in New Jersey, Wales and Belgium.
- Advising global IT solutions and business information provider Telvent GIT S.A. on its US$2 billion (£1.4 billion) sale to global energy management specialist Schneider Electric, including counsel with regard to European and US competition authorities.
- Serving as counsel to an owner and manager of theme parks in a US$160 million IPO of master limited partnership units; the underwriter was a global advisory investment bank.
- Serving as counsel to a communications entity focused on global development, finance and operations, in the US$1 billion private equity financing and acquisition of a 54.2-percent interest in a European telecommunications company. The original owners of the telecommunications company maintained a significant ownership interest in the company. The business franchise encompasses more than 2.4 million homes (90 percent of Flemish households), of which 2.2 million are CATV subscribers. The company supplies cable services to Flanders, one of Belgium’s most prosperous regions, home to six million people, 58 percent of Belgium's population and one of the most densely populated areas in Europe.
- Representing the acquirer, the world's largest tire manufacturer, in connection with its US$2.6 billion acquisition of a US-based tire maker via a white knight tender offer. We also advised on the competition aspects of the deal, guiding the transaction through the US Federal Trade Commission without a second request.
Case Studies
When Madrid-based pharmaceutical business Industrial Farmaceutica Cantabria sought legal assistance with a problematic investment in a Florida-based pharmaceutical company, a recommendation led the company’s corporate officers to Squire Sanders. A me...
When the automotive industry was suffering serious difficulties in 2009 as a result of global economic conditions, even the most prestigious brands such as Land Rover and Jaguar cars did not escape unscathed.
The brands had been bought from the Ford...
Squire Sanders was selected in 2004 to serve as General Counsel to the 800 MHz Transition Administrator (TA), a hand-picked team charged with oversight and administration of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 800 MHz reconfiguration progra...
Situation:Cedar Fair, L.P., learned that CBS intended to sell its five US and Canadian Paramount amusement parks through an auction process. If Cedar Fair were able to acquire these parks, it could approximately double its holdings.Challenge:Cedar Fa...