Kirkland & Ellis advised Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a leading independent infrastructure fund manager, on its acquisition by BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK). The completion of the acquisition was announced October 1, 2024. The combination creates an industry leader in infrastructure across equity, debt and solutions – providing a diverse range of infrastructure sector expertise and exposure across developed and emerging markets. The combined infrastructure platform will be branded Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a part of BlackRock. GIP will continue to be led by Bayo Ogunlesi and the Office of the Chairman. With approximately $170 billion in AUM, the platform will field a 600-person strong global team that manages a diversified portfolio of more than 300 active investments with operations in over 100 countries. Read GIP and BlackRock's combined press release The Kirkland team was led by asset management M&A partners Daniel Lavon-Krein and Christopher Gandia; corporate partners Melissa Kalka, Andy Calder, Doug Bacon, Stephen Noh, Kate Willson and Rami Totari; capital markets partner Julian Seiguer; and tax partners Stephen Butler and Joseph Tootle.