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Private Equity
Ropes & Gray is one of the few national firms that makes serving the needs of private equity clients a major focus. For more than 25 years, our lawyers have been representing all of the various participants in private equity funds, as well as in leveraged acquisitions and other private equity investment transactions. The success of our practice is based on three tenets: - Our purpose is to help clients to make intelligent investments on intelligent terms. To this end we are constructive in all our dealings with others.
- We are committed to excellence in service by being responsive to client needs and understanding the time sensitive nature of opportunities.
- We work constantly to develop our practice through innovation to provide our clients with access to leading-edge solutions and strategies.
Building on these values, we bring an unsurpassed depth of experience and a distinctive approach to provide astute advice and assessments of risk, practical solutions, and first-class service for our clients. Fund Formation and Investment Ropes & Gray has one of the largest and most sophisticated private investment fund practices in the country. Fund Formation We have organized the full range of private investment funds, from leveraged buyout funds, to venture capital funds, to funds of funds, to CDO funds, to hedge funds, to mezzanine funds. We have also organized specialized funds in the natural resources and energy, technology, and health fields. Structuring these funds requires not only an intimate familiarity with the relevant securities and investment company rules, but also a significant amount of tax, ERISA, and industry knowledge. We also have substantial experience in structuring and organizing offshore funds and in solving complex problems involved in structuring the internal management of sponsors. Investments in Funds The firm represents a significant number of university and endowments, foundations, funds of funds, pension funds, and other institutional investors in connection with their investments in private equity, mezzanine, venture, CDO, hedge, and other funds. As a result of our fund formation work and representation of many of the nation’s major funds investors, we review and analyze virtually every premier fund that comes to market. Years of experience enable us quickly to identify significant issues and to formulate practical solutions to complex tax, ERISA, and other problems facing a potential investor. Leveraged Buyouts We have one of the nation’s leading practices advising transaction sponsors and other participants in all aspects of leveraged acquisitions and related private equity transactions, including: - Acquisition and disposition;
- Equity financing;
- Management compensation;
- Seller financing;
- Mezzanine debt; and
- High yield bond financings and senior financings.
Our sponsor clients engage in complex transactions that require a creative but practical approach to solving legal, business, and human problems and draw upon our expertise in a wide range of areas, including among others tax, intellectual property, securities, labor and ERISA, environmental, and litigation. We also represent managements and a wide variety of debt and equity financers in deals sponsored by others. Minority Investments Our lawyers have extensive experience assisting clients in corporate finance transactions involving preferred stock, subordinated debt, and other types of securities. In many cases, these transactions result in the investor holding a minority interest in the issuer, and we are adept at formulating structures and provisions that protect the interests of these minority investors. Conversely, we often represent a majority investor or the issuer itself, enabling us to understand these transactions from all perspectives. Senior and Mezzanine Debt We have substantial experience in all aspects of senior, subordinated, and structured financings. That experience includes corporate, leveraged acquisitions and investment grade financings, both cash flow and asset based. Additionally, we have significant cross-border financing expertise and are among a limited number of law firms with cross-border asset based lending experience. Our finance attorneys also regularly represent debtors and lenders in the aspect of restructurings and bankruptcies including debtor-in-possession financings. Mergers and Acquisitions We handle all types of merger and acquisition transactions, including public and private company transactions, acquisitions, and dispositions of subsidiaries and divisions as well as acquisition and dispositions through bankruptcy proceedings. We are intimately familiar with the accounting, securities, tax, and other issues that can arise in these types of transactions. CDO, Venture, and Hedge Fund Investments Many of our sponsor group clients manage CDO funds, venture funds, and hedge funds, and together, with lawyers in our Venture Capital & Technology Company Practice and our Investment Management Practice, we have extensive experience in advising clients with regard to investments by these funds. Natural Resources Investments From timberlands to oil and gas to electricity, Ropes & Gray is experienced with the unique issues that arise in energy and natural resources related transactions. We have assisted clients in purchasing hundreds of thousands of acres of timberland, structuring oil and gas transactions involving production payment, overriding royalty and other similar interests, and facilitating power related transactions ranging from the acquisition of direct power generating capability to the advising of a fund designed to operate in the power commodity markets. Please click here to learn more about our Debt Financing Practice. Contact For further information on our Private Equity Transactions Practice, please contact: For further information on our Private Equity Investment Funds Practice, please contact:
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