Paul Hastings, Kirkland & Ellis and Hengeler Mueller have advised Madison Air on its $5.4bn acquisition of German fan maker ebm-papst, the owner families of which were repped by Milbank.
Paul Hastings acted as US counsel to Chicago-headquartered Madison, with the team led by private equity co-chair Brian Richards. He has advised the company – part of billionaire Larry Gies' Madison Industries – on dozens of deals in the past, including its $3.6bn acquisition of Nortek Air Solutions in 2021.
Meanwhile, Kirkland & Ellis advised Madison Air on the US capital markets and antitrust aspects of the deal, according to Law.com. Earlier this year, Kirkland also advised the company on its $2.5bn debut on the New York Stock Exchange, the largest US industrials IPO in nearly 30 years.
Hengeler Mueller's team was led by Düsseldorf-based M&A partners Thomas Meurer and Martin Ulbrich. Meurer has a longstanding relationship with Madison Industries – back in 2016 he also led a Hengeler team that worked alongside Paul Hastings to advise one of its affiliates, Filtration Group, on its acquisition of Mahle's industrial filtration business.
The ebm-papst acquisition will expand Madison's air quality and ventilation business as it moves to tap the rapidly-growing data-centre cooling market, Reuters reported. It will give the company access to ebm-papst's customer base in Europe and Asia, fuelling its expansion beyond its core North American market.
For its part ebm-papst, which employs more than 13,000 people globally and grew revenue to $2.6bn in the fiscal year to 31 March, is a major supplier of fans and ventilation systems used in refrigeration and air conditioning.
The company's three shareholder families will transfer their stakes to Madison Air, advised by a Milbank team that spanned the US and Germany and was led by Frankfurt-based corporate partner Jan Häller. The deal put him across the table from former colleagues, Häller having left Hengeler last year after a decade at the firm to join Milbank.
Ebm-papst said the deal would give it better access to the US market, adding the prospects for growth in data centres and AI infrastructure were "immense".
The transaction is expected to close around year-end, subject to receipt of required regulatory approvals.
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