Kirkland & Ellis advised the special committee of the board of Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE) in connection with Safehold’s tax-free, strategic combination with its controlling shareholder iStar Inc. (NYSE: STAR). In addition, iStar will spin off to iStar shareholders a new publicly traded entity that will own all of its remaining non-ground lease assets and $400 million of its SAFE shares. The transaction will accelerate Safehold’s market leadership in the ground lease industry and make Safehold the only internally-managed, pure-play ground lease company in the public markets. Concurrent with the closing of the transaction, MSD Partners will make a strategic investment in the combined company. The transaction is expected to close in late Q4 2022 or in Q1 2023, subject to satisfaction of closing conditions. Read the Safehold press release The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Michael Brueck, Eric Schiele and David Perechocky and associates Daniel Yip, Alexandra Gallogly, Josh Dulberg and Eric St. Bernard, capital markets partners Joshua Korff and Ross Leff and associate Alborz Tolou, debt finance partner Andy Veit and associate Patrick Loughery, tax partners Mike Beinus and Justin Barbosa, real estate partner Andrew Van Noord and associate Victoria Acuff, executive compensation partner Rob Fowler and associate Rebekah Kostelak, and technology & IP transactions partner Neil Hirshman and associate Scottie Shermetaro.