Michael Brandt is a partner in the Corporate & Financial Services Department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. Michael's focus includes mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity transactions, capital market transactions and general corporate matters. In the area of mergers and acquisitions, he has represented public and private companies.
Experience
Michael has advised on the following significant matters:
- Microporous and its majority shareholder in the sale of Microporous, a leading manufacturer of lead-acid battery separators, to Trent Capital Partners, a minority investor therein.
- HBC, parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, on its $2.65 billion acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group.
- Galata Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company led by Callaway Capital, in its business combination with Marti Technologies Inc., Turkey’s leading mobility app.
- Varroc Engineering Ltd. in its €600 million sale of Varroc Lighting Systems to Plastic Omnium.
- HBC in its investment in Convene and creation of a leading flex space operator.
- DigitalBridge Group in the $3.2 billion sale of its Wellness Infrastructure business to Highgate Capital Investments and Aurora Health Network.
- AdaptHealth Corp. in its $2 billion acquisition of home medical equipment provider AeroCare.
- AdaptHealth LLC in its $142 million common stock public offering, and its $600, $500 million and $350 million senior notes offerings.
- AdaptHealth Corp., a leading home medical equipment and supplies company, in equity investments from One Equity Partners and Deerfield Management in connection with AdaptHealth’s acquisitions of Solara Medical Supplies, LLC and ActivStyle, Inc.
- Seaport Capital in its strategic investment in Linen King, a regional leader in healthcare laundry services.
- The Hudson’s Bay Company Shareholder Group in its $1.4 billion agreement with HBC to take the company private.
- Hudson’s Bay Company in its $100 million sale of the Lord + Taylor brand and related intellectual property to Le Tote.
- Home medical equipment company AdaptHealth in its business combination with special purpose acquisition company DFB Healthcare Acquisitions Corp.
- Seaport Capital in its strategic investment in data collection provider All Traffic Data.
- HBC in its agreement with SIGNA Retail Holdings to combine HBC Europe with Germany’s Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH, creating Germany’s leading retailer with annual revenue in excess of €5 billion, and the sale to SIGNA of 50% of HBC’s German real estate assets to form a 50-50 real estate joint venture with SIGNA valued at €3.25 billion.
- Keg Logistics LLC on its acquisition of Keg Credit, LLC, which combines two of the leading keg providers in the U.S. craft brewing industry.
- Hudson’s Bay Company in a $500 million equity investment by Rhône Capital in the form of 8-year mandatory convertible preferred shares. (named "Private Equity Deal of the Year" at the 2018 IFLR Americas Awards).
- Twin Haven Capital Partners, LLC, one of the largest stockholders of Hawaiian Telcom, in connection with the approximately $650 million pending merger of Hawaiian Telcom and Cincinnati Bell Inc.
- Aeolus, its founder and management team in the acquisition of a controlling interest in Aeolus by Elliott Management.
- Aralez Pharmaceuticals in its acquisition of the U.S. rights to beta-blocker Toprol-XL® from AstraZeneca.
- Generation Investment Management, a Seventh Generation shareholder, in connection with Seventh Generation’s acquisition by Unilever.
- Colony Capital, Inc. in its $17 billion merger of equals with NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc. and NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. to create Colony NorthStar, Inc., with $58 billion of assets under management.
- Hudson’s Bay Company in its $250 million acquisition of Gilt.
- NAC Holdings LLC, a Seaport Capital portfolio company and owner of Net Access, in the sale of Net Access to Cologix.
- Hudson’s Bay Company in the formation of HBS Global Properties, a joint venture with Simon Property Group valued at $1.8 billion, and in its subsequent sales of $533 million and $50 million of its equity in HBS.
- Clovis Oncology in its $316.2 million stock offering.
- Hudson’s Bay Company in its €2.82 billion, cross-border acquisition of Galeria Kaufhof.
- New York Life in its acquisition of a majority of John Hancock’s participating whole life insurance block, as well as the sale of its retirement plan services business to Hancock.
- Worley Claims Services and its owners, including Seaport Capital, in the sale of a majority stake in Worley to Aquiline Capital Partners.
- Clovis Oncology in its $287.5 million bond offering.
- Dolce Vita Holdings, Inc. in its acquisition by Steve Madden.
- Clovis Oncology in its acquisition of EOS (Ethical Oncology Science), a privately held Italian biopharmaceutical company, for up to $420 million.
- Seven Mile Capital Partners in its acquisition of Microporous Products from Polypore International Inc. for $120 million.
- Constitution Medical Investors, Inc. in its sale to Roche Diagnostics.
- Varroc Group in its acquisition of Visteon Corp.’s automotive lighting business.
- Morgan Stanley in its sale of its mortgage servicing business, Saxon, to Ocwen Financial Corporation for a base purchase price plus approximately $1.2 billion for servicing advance receivables outstanding.
- Warburg Pincus in connection with its investments in Benchmark Solutions, Constitution Medical Investors, Hana Biosciences Inc., Home Dialysis Plus, RegionalCare Hospital Partners and other companies.
- Fiat in its acquisition of the equity interests in Chrysler of The United States Department of the Treasury and the Canadian government.
- Fiat in its acquisitions from Chrysler of additional equity interests in Chrysler, raising Fiat’s percentage ownership of Chrysler above 50%.
- Agusta SpA in its buyout of Bell Helicopter Textron from a joint venture to build a civilian tiltrotor helicopter.
- Brookfield Asset Management Inc. in its $2.625 billion cornerstone investment in General Growth Properties and its subsequent $1.7 billion acquisition of an additional ownership interest in GGP.
- Stiefel Laboratories, Inc. in connection with its acquisitions of Connetics Corporation and Barrier Therapeutics and its $3.6 billion sale to GlaxoSmithKline plc.
- Pharmion Corporation in its sale to Celgene Corp. for $2.9 billion in cash and stock.
- Sbarro, Inc. in its acquisition by MidOcean.
Credentials
Education
New York University School of Law, J.D., 2005 Georgetown University, B.A., 2001