International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges represented new private equity client Unitas Capital, a leading Asia-based private equity house, in its €525 million cross-border acquisition of Hyva Holdings B.V., the market leader in hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic tipping solutions with operations in more than 130 countries, including a substantial presence in BRIC countries, especially China. The transaction is expected to complete in the first half of 2011 and is subject to approval by the relevant competition authorities.
The extremely competitive sale of Hyva attracted significant interest from a range of private equity houses and strategic bidders. The Weil team negotiated and finalized transaction documentation and sponsor financing in a very short period of time, demonstrating the practical application of the firm’s strong cross-border focus.
The multi-jurisdictional Weil team was led by London-based partner Marco Compagnoni and included London associate James Harvey and partners Peter Feist, Steve Xiang, and Anthony Wang in Asia. Jacky Kelly led on finance with associates Andrew Bishop and William Carter. The finance team played a key role in the transaction as certain funds financing was essential to Unitas’ bid being competitive. The transaction also involved dealing with complex financial assistance and security issues in Europe, India, and China.
“This was an important transaction for us, where being able to get to agreed and binding documentation in a short period of time was critical to our success,” commented Simon Bell, Unitas’ General Counsel with whom the Weil team worked closely, “Weil were fundamental to our achieving this and it was a real pleasure to work with Marco, Jacky, James, and the Weil team, all of whom worked tirelessly and to great effect in what was a very demanding situation to help get us over the finish line.”
Weil’s UK-based Private Equity team thus ends 2010 in much the same way it started the year: with high-profile assignments on significant cross-border transactions. In January, Weil advised Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board on its acquisition of Acorn Care and Education, its first direct private equity investment in Europe. These transactions put Weil in the top band of the UK league tables for both financings and private equity transactions and conclude an outstanding year for the firm, supporting long-standing clients such as Advent International, Lion Capital, and HgCapital on a range of significant acquisitions, as well as complex refinancings for ONO, Dubai International Capital, and Elementis.
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