Our Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) team concentrates on mid-cap M&A and joint venture transactions, but represents clients in structuring, negotiating and executing transactions of all magnitudes. Riker Danzig has one of the most active M&A and joint venture practices of any New Jersey-based law firm in terms of both aggregate deal value and the total number of transactions handled.
Our M&A lawyers have significant experience representing sellers, purchasers, equityholder groups, target companies, financial advisors, venture capital and private equity firms and other investors in all types of transactions, including equity and asset acquisitions and divestitures, mergers, business combinations, tender offers, leveraged buy-outs, takeovers, control and non-control investment transactions (including PIPE transactions), joint ventures and strategic alliances. Our clients include Global 500 and Fortune 500 corporations, other large cap companies, middle market enterprises, and emerging growth companies in all stages of development.
In addition, our M&A lawyers have considerable experience in a wide variety of business sectors, including: Advanced Materials; Apparel & Textiles; Energy (including renewable and clean energy); Food and Consumer Products; healthcare; Insurance & Reinsurance; Logistics & Transportation; Manufacturing; Pharmaceuticals; Real Estate Redevelopment; Restaurant & Hospitality; Retailing & Supply Chain; and Telecommunications, Internet/E-Commerce & Technology.
Critical for the success of our clients, we provide timely and coordinated responsiveness with respect to all aspects of a transaction: from advising on deal terms and transaction structure to managing due diligence, and from the drafting and negotiation of detailed transaction documents to assisting in obtaining transaction approvals from regulatory agencies.
Often these transactions are complex and require input from a number of practice areas. We work closely with our colleagues throughout the Firm to provide advice on all facets of a transaction. This includes partnering with: our Tax Law Group to develop a tax efficient deal structure; our colleagues practicing in government affairs and various regulatory disciplines (such as environmental, insurance, and labor and employment) to navigate the web of federal, State and local rules; our intellectual property, business litigation, securities litigation, bankruptcy and real estate colleagues to assist in practically evaluating risks and in protecting the clients' interests in buying and selling particular types of assets and businesses; and our employee benefits colleagues to advise clients on the golden parachute, executive and equity-based compensation and employee benefit plan issues that arise in M&A transactions and other business combinations as well as on a wide range of post-transaction issues related to integration and separation of benefit plans and compensation policies.
As a firm, we have the breadth of skill and knowledge to handle sophisticated transactions in an efficient and cost-effective manner while providing our clients with the highest levels of service and attention.
Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances
Our experience in this area includes the structure and formation of joint ventures and strategic alliances organized for a variety of purposes across many industries, including joint ventures formed for manufacturing, distribution, product development, logistics management, technology licensing, marketing and other services, hotel projects, solar and other power plant development and operation, real estate development and re-development, and pharmaceutical R&D. We have extensive experience with joint ventures formed as separate legal entities as well as with joint ventures and strategic alliances operated through complex contractual arrangements and with one-way or multi-party strategic investments.
Our Tax Law Group's broad experience in structuring partnerships and limited liability companies enables us to develop and employ creative solutions to accomplish clients' goals.
Our experience includes domestic as well as cross border joint ventures. Our attorneys have the necessary understanding of U.S. laws relating to the formation and operation of a joint venture business by a U.S. company outside the U.S., including export controls, OFAC sanctions and FCPA/OECD antibribery laws.
Private Equity
Our experience in the private equity market enables us to bring value-added advice and services to family-owned and other closely-held businesses entertaining exit strategies, value realization or expansion plans.
Having represented both targets and funds in numerous transactions, we have become skilled in negotiating, in a practical and constructive manner, the complex and nuanced arrangements that will govern the relationship between the company founders and private equity investors, balancing the competing objectives of both groups for management rights, upside potential (through rights of first refusal, warrants or conversion rights), downside protection (through anti-dilution covenants and liquidation preference), and liquidity protection (through tag-along and registration rights).
The Firm is also active in assisting portfolio companies throughout their continued development.
Reinsurance Transactions
Reinsurance serves as the key vehicle in the sale or transfer of blocks of business, and in implementing the purchase or sale of an insurance business. Sophisticated reinsurance structures and transactions require a depth of knowledge in multiple legal disciplines, including corporate, securities, tax, and insurance regulation, among others. We have a growing practice in representing ceding insurers, domestic and non-U.S. reinsurers and intermediaries with respect to: finite and traditional risk transfer structures; residual value and other financial guaranty transactions; reinsurance trusts and other collateralization devices; assumption reinsurance, coinsurance, and portfolio reinsurance; and commutation and novation agreements.
Cross-Border Transactions
Our M&A lawyers have significant experience advising clients on cross-border transactions. Our attorneys are familiar with the political, economic and cultural complexities of negotiating and structuring cross-border acquisitions and the obstacles encountered while doing business in the international arena. We have represented clients in a wide range of cross-border transactions, including structuring, negotiating and effectuating international joint ventures, strategic alliances and acquisitions involving parties from Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and other European countries, China, Japan, Hong Kong and other southeast Asian nations, India and the Middle East. These transactions have ranged from small investments to multi-million dollar acquisitions across a variety of industries.
We also frequently represent corporations located outside the U.S. in making investments and acquisitions in the U.S. Our substantial deal experience enables us to provide these clients with the knowledge needed to effectively execute complex transactions in a legal and business environment with which they may not have extensive familiarity.
Representative Transactions
The Riker Danzig M&A Group has represented clients in connection with a number of sophisticated transactions in recent years, including the following:
- A multi-state nurse staffing business in a sale to and recapitalization by a private equity-led consortium.
- A NASDAQ-listed waste management firm in its acquisition of a New Jersey-based waste disposal company.
- An Austrian-based logistics firm in its acquisition of a Utah-based logistics company.
- A UK-based engineering firm in its participation in a Pennsylvania-based joint venture focused on the production of activated carbon.
- A major insurance company in connection with several acquisitions of insurance brokerages and a bail bonds agency and the sale of a licensed underwriting affiliate.
- The management of an innovative textile developer in connection with their acquisition of the company from its private equity owner by way of a merger.
- A commercial lubricants distributor in connection with the sale of the company to a Brazilian conglomerate.
- A clothing distributor in connection with the sale of its legwear-focused subsidiary to a private equity-owned competitor.
- A blockchain-based social media platform and cryptocurrency issuer in connection with its sale to another blockchain technology-focused enterprise by way of a reverse triangular merger.
- A transportation and logistics firm in connection with its acquisition of a bulk chemical transportation company.
- A multinational biotechnology consulting firm in connection with its sale to another consulting firm.
- A multinational commodities trading firm in connection with software as a service (SaaS) agreements for its proprietary trading software, a cross-border restructuring and joint venture, and the subsequent sale of the software.
- A financial consulting firm in connection with a fintech-focused joint venture.
Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.
