Achievements

A cross-border, multidisciplinary Latham team led by members of the firm’s asset management M&A and real estate practices represents global alternative investment manager Ares Management Corporation in acquiring the international business of GLP Capital Partners, GCP International, in a transaction valued US$3.7 billion, with the potential for an additional $1.5 billion of consideration to be paid subject to the achievement of certain performance metrics. The transaction establishes Ares Real Estate as one of the largest global vertically integrated real assets platforms and nearly doubles its assets under management to approximately US$96 billion.

Latham represents high-growth, global alternative asset manager Apollo in its US$3.6 billion pending take-private acquisition of Barnes Group Inc., a global provider of highly engineered products, differentiated industrial technologies, and innovative solutions. Upon completion of the transaction, Barnes will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and become a privately held company.

A Latham Asia team advised LG Display on a series of transactions to dispose of its entire interest in LG Display (China) and LG Display (Guangzhou), which manufacture liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and modules in China, as it shifts its focus to organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology. LG Display will sell all its interests to TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co. (CSOT), subsidiary of TCL, for RMB10.8 billion.

Latham advised Ericsson on a new joint venture with some of the world’s largest telecom operators, including América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Reliance Jio, Singtel, Telefonica, Telstra, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Vodafone, to combine and sell network Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on a global scale to spur innovation in digital services. The venture aims to implement and provide access to common APIs from multiple telecom providers to a wider range of developer platforms. The new company will unify network APIs globally, enabling new applications to work universally across networks, thus accelerating developer innovation.

Latham advised Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and its subsidiary, Solar Philippines New Energy Corporation, on its strategic partnership with Actis, a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure, on its 40% stake in the Terra Solar Project, the largest foreign direct investment for a greenfield infrastructure project in the Philippines. The US$3.5 billion project is poised to be the world’s largest integrated renewables and energy storage project, providing electricity to c. 2.4 million Philippine households.

A Latham antitrust team has won a significant victory for client GRAIL before the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which has invalidated the European Commission’s unlawful assertion of jurisdiction over the Illumina/GRAIL merger under the EU Merger Regulation. The ECJ’s ruling marks a pivotal moment in the development of EU merger control, reinforcing the principles of legal certainty, institutional balance, and procedural fairness.

A London-led Latham capital markets team has advised CK Infrastructure Holdings Limited (CKI), one of the world's largest infrastructure companies, on the listing of its shares in the Equity Shares (International Commercial Companies Secondary Listing) category of the UK Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Official List and trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market. CKI is the first company admitted to list under the newly implemented UK listing rules, and the first-ever company to be listed in the FCA’s international category.

Latham London team represents CVC on its recommended £5.4 billion private equity offer, in a consortium with Nordic Capital and ADIA, for Hargreaves Lansdown plc, the UK’s largest savings and investment platform and the UK’s biggest retail stockbroker. 

A multidisciplinary Latham team represented Lineage, Inc., the world’s largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT, on the largest IPO to date in 2024 and the largest REIT IPO in history. 

A Latham M&A team represents Skydance Media in its merger with Paramount, valuing New Paramount at approximately US$28 billion and Skydance at US$4.75 billion, and an Investor Group, comprising the Ellison Family and RedBird Capital Partners, in an over US$8 billion investment in Paramount Global and the acquisition of National Amusements, Inc. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2025.

Latham litigators secured a critical win for X Corp. (formerly known as Twitter) in a putative class action in the Northern District of Illinois alleging that X violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in its use of PhotoDNA software to identify and remove images of child exploitation from the X platform. A federal court decision affirmed that data must be capable of identifying an individual to qualify as a "biometric identifier" under BIPA, resulting in a significant win for X Corp. The court ruled that the plaintiff failed to plausibly allege that PhotoDNA collects biometric identifiers, such as facial geometry scans, and agreed with X's position that data must be identifiable to qualify under BIPA. This ruling is favorable for other companies facing similar BIPA claims.

The US Supreme Court sided with Latham client Relentless Inc. in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce, overruling the Chevron doctrine, which required courts to defer to Executive Branch agencies on ambiguous statutes. Latham partner Roman Martinez argued for Relentless, a small New England fishing company challenging a rule mandating private companies to fund at-sea government observers. The Court held that under the Administrative Procedure Act, courts must independently determine if an agency has acted within its statutory authority, rejecting Chevron's deference principle. This landmark decision recalibrates the balance of power between agencies and courts, with significant implications for federal agencies.

A Latham team advised ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, one of the world’s fastest-growing data center providers, on its S$1.75 billion (approximately US$1.3 billion) investment from global investment firm KKR (through its Asia Pacific Infrastructure Investors II Fund), and Singtel, Asia’s leading communications technology group. The transaction marks the largest digital infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia to date in 2024.

A Cook County Circuit Judge issued a decision granting Latham’s combined motion to dismiss and motion for summary judgment and dismissed a proposed Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA) class action lawsuit, with prejudice. This decision is the first involuntary dismissal of a GIPA claim against a hospital corporation in Illinois.

A Latham cross-practice team advised Barclays and SMBC on a £600 million data center securitization for Vantage Data Centers, the first public securitization of data centers in EMEA. The groundbreaking deal marks Vantage’s tenth data center securitization globally and ninth green debt issuance. Vantage Data Centers is a leading global provider of hyperscale data center campuses.

A cross-office antitrust litigation team has achieved a precedent-setting victory for Cendyn Group, LLC, defeating “hub and spoke” conspiracy allegations tied to algorithmic pricing recommendations, with wide impact in a hot area of law at the intersection of antitrust and AI. The court’s May 2024 decision marks the first complete defense dismissal in the recent wave of algorithmic pricing antitrust cases.

Viking Holdings, one of the world’s leading travel companies, priced an upsized US$1.54 billion initial public offering. A multidisciplinary team represented the underwriters in the offering, which is the largest US IPO at pricing in 2024 to date.

A Latham M&A and tax team represents Endeavor in its US$25 billion take-private acquisition by Silver Lake, a global leader in technology investing. The transaction is the largest private equity sponsor take-private in 10 years and largest ever in the media and entertainment sector.

A cross-practice Latham team advised Bridgepoint and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) on the sale of Dorna Sports S.L. to Liberty Media in a transaction that values the company at €4.2 billion. Dorna is the international sports management, media, and marketing company that holds the global rights to organize the MotoGP and WSBK Championships, which together represent the two preeminent motorcycle racing series in the world.

A Latham private equity team has advised SRS Distribution (SRS), a Leonard Green & Partners and Berkshire Partners portfolio company, on its US$18.25 billion acquisition by The Home Depot. Since its founding in 2008, SRS has become a leading distributor in the United States in the residential roofing, landscape, and pool supply markets, with more than 760 branches across 47 states. The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer.

A multidisciplinary Latham team with extensive technology experience has advised social media icon Reddit, Inc., a community of communities, on its high-profile US$748 million initial public offering, one of the largest IPOs of 2024 to date. The shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on March 21, 2024, under the ticker symbol RDDT.

Latham’s London and European office teams advised a group of 14 arranging banks on a £1.6 billion debt financing for Motor Fuel Group’s (MFG) acquisition of petrol forecourts from Morrisons. The acquisition will position MFG as one of the largest and most significant ultra-rapid EV charge point operators in the UK, with over 1,300 sites serving and powering millions of customers a week.

A cross-border Latham team advised Athens International Airport S.A. — the operator of the largest airport in Greece with more than 28 million passengers in 2023 — on the listing of its shares on the regulated market of the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX). The landmark transaction represents the first major listing in Europe in 2024 and the biggest initial public offering in Greece in over 15 years.

A multidisciplinary Latham team represented the buyer group on all aspects of its acquisition of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR), an iconic mountain destination in Teton Village, Wyoming. The buyers, which include JHMR Board Members Eric Macy, Mike Corbat, their families and a small, select group of co-investors, take over for the Kemmerer family after 31 years of ownership.