Mergers & Acquisitions
You hire M&A lawyers to facilitate deals, not hold them up. Our team carefully assesses risk, and structures and negotiates your transactions to position you best. However, we don’t give you unnecessary, protracted updates on minor details. We maximize time by ensuring clear communication, lean staffing, and a keen understanding of your long-term objectives.
We have one of the country’s most experienced groups of M&A attorneys, advising businesses every day on how to access the market to achieve their strategic and liquidity objectives. With over 125 M&A attorneys throughout our firm, we have the depth to assemble a complete team of lawyers that can react quickly to solve the most critical challenges facing your business today. We serve clients ranging from Fortune 500 corporations, closely held companies, private equity sponsors, investment banks and special committees.
Experience
Alston & Bird M&A attorneys have extensive experience advising clients engaged in a full range of domestic and cross-border public and private transactions, including acquisitions and divestitures, mergers, leveraged buyouts, going-private transactions, strategic alliances and joint ventures. We have developed significant industry-specific knowledge in many cutting-edge industries, including:
- biotechnology;
- consumer products and services;
- energy;
- financial services;
- health care; and
- technology and telecommunications
Accolades
Our M&A practice is consistently among the most active in the nation.
- Top 25 “M&A Advisers in Announced Deals with a Value of $100 Million or More,” based on number of deals in 2022. (The Deal)
- Ranked in the top 15, based on number of deals, in the M&A category “US Middle Market Announced Deals,” in 2022. (FactSet)
- Ranked #6 among U.S. law firms representing financial advisors in M&A activity for 2022. (Corporate Control Alert)
- Nationally ranked in Tier 1 for Mergers & Acquisitions Law since 2013. (U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms”)
Bringing Value to Our Clients
We operate based on two fundamental principles: first, that a client hires us to be facilitators, not roadblocks; and second, that we are there to protect the value of our client’s deal. We focus on our client’s business and long-term objectives and ascertain the elements of value in the deal for our client. We take a fully integrated approach to assessing the risks that affect value, negotiate to minimize those risks and structure the transaction so that the objectives are accomplished.
- Represented Italian-based Ali Holding S.r.l., one of the largest and most diversified global leaders in the foodservice equipment industry, in its $3.5 billion acquisition of Welbilt Inc., a leading global supplier of commercial foodservice equipment and the related sale of Welbilt’s Manitowoc Ice business to an affiliate of Pentair plc, a global water treatment and solutions company for $1.6 billion.
- Represented Architectural Surfaces Group LLC in its acquisition of DaVinci Marble Inc., a California-based building materials distributor.
- Represented Builders FirstSource, a leading manufacturer and distributor of building products to professional homebuilders, in its acquisitions of the Arizona businesses of Pima Door & Supply, Inc., Sunrise Carpentry, Inc., Valley Truss Company, Texas Panel Truss, East Panel Truss, HomCo Lumber and Hardware, and Trussway.
- Represented Citi, financial advisor to Healthcare Realty Trust, in its $7.75 billion business combination with Healthcare Trust of America.
- Represented Credit Suisse, financial advisor to Sitio Royalties Corp., in its $4.8 billion merger with Brigham Minerals Inc., a Texas-based mineral acquisition company focused on acquiring oil and gas mineral rights across the U.S.
- Represented Indiana-based logistics REIT Duke Realty Corporation in its $26 billion acquisition by Prologis, a San Francisco-based logistics real estate company. This was the largest REIT privatization transaction of 2022.
- Represented Fifth Third Bancorp in its acquisition of Dividend Finance, a leading fintech point-of-sale (POS) lender, providing financing solutions for residential renewable energy and sustainability-focused home improvement.
- Represented FLEETCOR Technologies, a leading global business payments company, in its acquisition of Accrualify, an accounts payable (AP) automation software company.
- For more than 10 years, we have represented Graphic Packaging International, a leading provider of paperboard packaging solutions to multinational and other consumer products companies, in more than a dozen M&A transactions, including its acquisition of assets from Delta Natural Kraft Inc.; its $280 million acquisition of Americraft Carton Inc.; several dispositions of non-core businesses; its merger agreement with Altivity Packaging LLC, a paperboard packaging company whose majority interest is held by the private equity group TPG Capital; and its $6 billion combination with the North America consumer packaging business of International Paper Company.
- Represented Houlihan Lokey, financial advisor to Gesher I Acquisition, an Israel-based blank check company, in its $435 million acquisition of Freightos Limited, an Israeli freight booking and payment platform.
- Represented Larkspur Health Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, in its $108.92 million merger with ZyVersa Therapeutics Inc., a clinical stage specialty biopharmaceutical company.
- Represented LHC Group Inc., a national provider of in-home healthcare services, in its $5.4 billion acquisition by Optum, a diversified health services company.
- Represented Macquarie Capital, financial advisor to Churchill Downs Inc., in its $2.485 billion acquisition of Peninsula Pacific Entertainment.
- Represented Mohawk Industries, a leading global flooring manufacturer, in its acquisition of Foss Flooring, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of non-woven needle-punch flooring, acquiring three manufacturing facilities in total, as a part of Mohawk’s continued strategic expansion plans.
- Represented N. Harris Computer Corp., subsidiary of Constellation Software, in its $700 million acquisition of Allscripts Healthcare Solutions’ Hospitals and Large Physician Practices business segment.
- Represented Said Differently, a global marketing agency, in its growth investment from Falfurrias Capital Partners, a Charlotte-based private equity investment firm.
- Advised Tropic Ocean Airways, the world's largest amphibious airline, in its new strategic partnership with and minority investment from Wheels Up Experience, a leading provider of private aviation.
- Represented Truist Ventures in its acquisition of Long Game Savings, Inc., an award-winning gamified finance mobile app.
- Represented TrueCar, a leading automotive digital marketplace, in its acquisition of Digital Motors, an automotive retail and financial technology platform company.
- Represented Lumine Group, a division of Volaris Group, in its acquisition of TOMIA, a technology provider to telecom carriers.
- Represented White Cap Supply Holdings, a portfolio company of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, with its acquisitions of National Concrete Accessories Canada Inc., substantially all of the assets of Tri-Supply & Equipment Inc., Diamond Tool & Fasteners Inc., the rebar operations of The Cook & Boardman Group, CSI Geoturf, and Valley Cash & Carry, Inc. (d/b/a Valley Supply).
- Represented ZenFi Networks, an East coast-based provider of digital infrastructure solutions, in its sale to BAI Communications, a world leader in shared communications infrastructure.
Highlights
Alston & Bird Ranked a Top Counsel to Investment Banks in 2022
Corporate Control Alert, the legal and financial dealmaking journal published by The Deal, has ranked Alston & Bird sixth among counsel to financial advisors on U.S. M&A transactions with a value of $100 million or more announced between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2022.
Vista Bancshares to Acquire Charis Holdings
Alston & Bird client Charis Holdings, the holding company for Charis Bank, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Vista Bancshares, the holding company for Vista Bank.
Mergers & Acquisitions