Kirkland & Ellis advised investment firm BC Partners on the sale of a minority stake in PetSmart to asset manager Apollo. BC Partners originally purchased PetSmart in 2015. BC Partners and its co-investors, which include GIC and the PetSmart management team, will maintain majority ownership and control of the board. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023. Read the transaction press release The Kirkland team included corporate partners Peter Martelli and Adam Clifford and capital markets partners Josh Korff and Tim Cruickshank, with support from corporate partners Ed Lee and Peter Fritz and associates Keli Huang, Justin Prindle, Alex Rodriguez Perez, Matthew Burner, Jorge Toledo and Isabella Bergonzoli Jaramillo; capital markets partner Jennifer Lee and associates Asher Qazi, Rebecca Cho, Alessandra Corona Henriques and Abdullah Khan; debt finance partners Eric Wedel and Ben Steadman and associates Justin Greer and Meggie Willinger; tax partners Dean Shulman, Lee Morlock, Anthony Sexton and Damien Rose; executive compensation partners Scott Price and Fishel Schreiber and associates Paige Costakos and Devin Kern; employee benefits partner Matt Antinossi and associate Ethan Kirner; employment & labor partner R.D. Kohut and associates Kayla Davis, Jaime Wamble and Olivia Hunter; technology & IP transactions partners Shellie Freedman and Kevin Jacobsen and associate Maggie King; real estate partners John Goldman and Zeina Kazour and associate Rachel Piccirillo; environmental transactions partner Carleigh Rodriguez and associate Dean Brower; antitrust partners Scott Scheele, Jim Mutchnik, Mike Thorpe, Matthew Sinclair-Thomson, Sally Evans and Sion Davies, of counsel Donna Peel, associates Catherine Kordestani, Shahrzad Sadjadi and Aakarsh Narula; and international trade & national security partner Mario Mancuso and associate Billy Phalen.