Paul Hastings, Goodwin Procter, Sidley Austin and Skadden were among the firms called in to advise on investment firm Thoma Bravo’s more than $4bn deal to take speciality insurance marketplace Accelerant private.
Paul Hastings is acting as US legal counsel to Accelerant, while Sidley Austin is serving as special insurance counsel and Maples Group is serving as Cayman Islands legal counsel for the company.
Meanwhile, Goodwin Procter is serving as legal counsel to Thoma Bravo, Skadden is providing special insurance counsel and Walkers is serving as Cayman Islands legal counsel.
Conyers Dill & Pearman is serving as legal counsel to a special committee representing Accelerant, while Ropes & Gray is serving as legal counsel to Altamont Capital Partners, Accelerant’s largest investor.
Thoma Bravo is paying $20.25 per share in cash for Accelerant, a 49% premium on the company’s closing share price on Wednesday (12 August). The deal values Accelerant at more than $4bn. Altamont and Accelerant’s founders intend to retain equity ownership alongside Thoma Bravo, with the terms still to be finalised.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
The Paul Hastings team on the deal was led by global M&A co-chair Eric Schiele and securities and capital markets global co-chair Colin Diamond, alongside partners Andrew Goodman, Dmitriy Molchanov and Kirk Lipsey. They were supported by insurance regulatory partner Sanjiv Tata; employee benefits partners Sasha Belinkie and Dan Stellenberg; antitrust partners Sally Evans, Salome Cisnal de Ugarte, Josh Soven and Gail Levine; finance partner Tracey Chenowth; tax partners Andrew Davis and Jenny Doak; and technology transactions co-chair Sarah Gagan.
The Sidley team advising Accelerant included capital markets partner Samir Gandhi in New York and insurance partners Tony Ribaudo and Sara Africano in Chicago and James Phythian-Adams in London.
Meanwhile, the Goodwin team advising Thoma Bravo was led by private equity partners David Johanson and Matthew Cognetti and global M&A chair Joshua Zachariah and M&A partner James Ding. The team have previously advised Thoma Bravo on deals including its $2.8bn acquisition of Ping Identity and its $1.8bn acquisition of NextGen Healthcare.
The Skadden team advising Thoma Bravo includes insurance and M&A partner Elena Coyle (New York); financial institutions counsels Matthew Roberts (New York), Caroline Jaffer (London) and Cheryl Bunevich (New York); corporate counsel François Barrière (Paris); and Tax partner Jared Binstock (Washington DC).
The Walkers team included corporate partners Jason Allison, Hugh Anderson and Michael Beck, insolvency and dispute resolution partner Barnaby Gowrie, insurance partner Gary Harris and regulatory partner Juliana Tan.
Jeff Radke, chairman and CEO of Accelerant, said: “Accelerant has been building the preeminent specialty insurance marketplace since our founding in 2018. Returning to private ownership with Thoma Bravo’s technology and software expertise, coupled with its vast financial and strategic resources, will enable us to make investments that further position our unique, data-fuelled platform to be the rails on which specialty insurance runs.”
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