Edward Brennan

Wafra. Inc. (Wafra), a global alternative investment firm, announced an investment in Intermountain Infrastructure Group LLC (IIG), a leading fiber infrastructure developer and operator focused on providing high-quality bandwidth and route diversity to hyperscale, cloud, carrier, and content customers. Post Road Group (Post Road), an alternative investment advisory firm based in Stamford, CT, also participated in the transaction alongside Wafra. The new partnership will enable IIG to accelerate its network deployment, including a new long-haul route in the Intermountain Region of the western United States. Led by Co-Founder, President, and CEO Jeff Yount and COO Brady Adams, IIG was founded in 2017 and owns long haul, regional, and metro fiber networks in the United States and Canada including Washington, Idaho, Montana, Illinois, Nevada, California, British Columbia, and Alberta. Latham & Watkins LLP represented Wafra in the transaction with a corporate deal team led by Houston and New York partner Ravi Purohit and Chicago and Boston partner Ian Bushner, with associates Cody Conwell, Edward Brennan, and Dalton Powell. Advice was also provided on debt finance matters by Houston partner Matthew Jones, with associate Christopher Wood; on tax matters by Bay Area partner Katharine Moir, with associate Gregory Conyers; and on benefits and compensation matters by Chicago partner Benjamin Rosemergy, with associate Dan Gocek.~~

Feb 22

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised GTCR LLC and Mega Broadband Investments Holdings LLC (MBI), a leading provider of broadband services across the Southeast, Northwest and Mid-South United States, in connection with the amendment of the terms of Cable One, Inc.’s (NYSE: CABO) strategic investment in MBI. Cable One currently owns a 45% stake in MBI, and affiliates of GTCR and MBI management own the balance of MBI. As part of the amended partnership agreement, Cable One paid $250 million to the other MBI equity holders, and those same other equity holders also received the proceeds from $100 million of new MBI debt. The amendments provide Cable One with enhanced ability to control the timing for acquiring the 55% interest it does not currently own pursuant to the put right held by GTCR, with any such acquisition to occur no earlier than October 1, 2026 unless Cable One elects to close the transaction at an earlier date. Read the transaction press release The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Mark Fennell, Chris Thomas and Edward Brennan; and debt finance lawyers Tom Dobleman and Emily Hogan.

Dec 20

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised AJAX I (NYSE: AJAX), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”), on its business combination agreement with Cazoo Holdings Limited, the UK’s leading online car retailer with a fast-growing presence in Europe. The transaction values the combined company at a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $7 billion. The transaction includes up to $805 million AJAX cash in trust, assuming no redemptions by AJAX shareholders, and an $800 million fully committed PIPE at $10.00 per share led by the AJAX sponsors and D1 Capital Partners and joined by new and existing investors including Altimeter, funds & accounts managed by BlackRock, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley) and Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC, Marcho Partners, Mubadala Capital, Pelham Capital, Senator Investment Group and Spruce House Partnership. AJAX is a $805m SPAC, founded by renowned US investor Dan Och in partnership with Glenn Fuhrman and a team of strategic advisors including the founders of Chipotle, Instagram, Square and 23andMe. Upon closing of the transaction, the combined company will be named Cazoo and will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbol “CZOO”. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021 and is subject to customary closing conditions. Read the transaction press release The Kirkland team was led by corporate partner Cole Parker. The team also included corporate partners Ryan Harris, Debbie Yee, Stuart Boyd and Katherine Bryan and associates Noah Allen, Syed Murshed, Madison Kavanaugh, Edward Brennan, Sara Lampert and Dan Simpkin, and tax partners Lee Morlock and Alan Walker.

Mar 29

1 min

Tegus, a Chicago-based research platform for investors, has announced it will acquire Canalyst, creating a new industry standard for modern research. Vancouver-based Canalyst offers more than 4,000 fully drivable financial models and company benchmarking data, with every key performance indicator and comparison that matters for making business-critical decisions. Latham & Watkins LLP represents Tegus in the acquisition with a corporate deal team Chicago partners Daniel Breslin and Cathy Birkeland, and Austin partner Jen Smith, with Chicago associates Jana Kovich, Edward Brennan, Dalton Powell, Autumn Schmidt, Omar Ammash, and Erica Kucharski. Advice was also provided on finance matters by Bay Area partner Haim Zaltzman and Houston partner Pamela Kellet, with Washington, D.C. associates Jennifer Kent, Fitsum Tilahun, and Patrick Loeffler and Austin associate Erin Cusenbary; on tax matters by Chicago partner Rene de Vera, with Chicago associate Gharrett Favinger; on benefits and compensation matters by Bay Area partner Ashley Wagner, with Bay Area associate Niveda Anandan; on intellectual property matters by Orange County counsel David Kuiper, with Bay Area associate Amy Tosi and Los Angeles associate Nick Goshgarian; on data privacy matters by Bay Area partner Robert Blamires, with Bay Area associate Jennifer Howes and Boston associate Kiara Vaughn; on regulatory and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters by Chicago partner Meredith Monroe, with Chicago associate John Doyle; on antitrust matters by Bay Area partner Kelly Smith Fayne, with New York associate Frances Chapman; and on sanctions matters by Washington, D.C. counsel Andrew Galdes.~~

Aug 2

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised Cole-Parmer, a portfolio company of GTCR, in its acquisition of ZeptoMetrix Corporation. ZeptoMetrix is a life sciences developer and manufacturer of quality control standards and verification panels used in molecular diagnostic testing for infectious diseases. The acquisition expands CP's quality controls and reference standards portfolio, and further establishes CP as a leading manufacturer of specialty chemistries and reagents for life sciences research and diagnostic testing. Read the GTCR press release The Kirkland team was led by transactional partners Chris Thomas, Michael Weed and Sanford Perl, and associates Edward Brennan and Kate Vandenberg; tax partners Gregory Gallagher and Polina Liberman; and debt finance partners Jocelyn Hirsch and Carolyn Aiken.

Jan 15

1 min