Private Equity

Overview

Parker Poe's Private Equity Team has structured, negotiated, and documented billions of dollars' worth of private equity transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions of portfolio companies, add-on acquisitions, control and minority investments, recapitalizations, joint ventures, and purchases of troubled companies out of bankruptcy.

Our practice focuses on the lower and middle market and our capabilities cover the full range of the investment cycle in the private equity markets, from fund formation to exit, as counsel to financial sponsors, general partners, and limited partners, as well as the companies, management teams, and entrepreneurs who utilize that capital to acquire, create, and grow businesses.

We also assist with other aspects of private equity transactions, including the negotiation and structuring of management and employment arrangements, equity incentive compensation plans, corporate structure and organization, management services, and equity and debt capitalizations of portfolio companies. We have experience in handling all layers of corporate finance transactions supporting private equity transactions, including senior and mezzanine loans, subordinated debt, warrants, preferred and common equity investments, and other types of securities and private credit.

Our team works on transactions throughout the United States and Canada across a diverse group of industries, with particular experience in commercial real estate, health care, manufacturing and distribution, automotive dealerships, energy, food and beverage, equipment rentals, litigation finance, environmental services, and waste and recycling. Because of our deep knowledge of various industries and the lower and middle market, clients also turn to us for help screening investment opportunities, such as commercial real estate opportunities in the Southeast.

As a full-service business law firm, we are able to handle complex transactions by engaging a team of lawyers to provide proactive support in a wide range of areas, such as tax, securities, intellectual property, labor and employment, employee benefits, corporate governance, real estate, environmental, and litigation. These teams are involved in transactions from the due diligence stage through the structuring and negotiation of the transaction.

After the acquisition, we often serve as corporate counsel to our fund clients’ portfolio companies and provide counsel in connection with commercial contracts, employee stock option plans, intellectual property protection, add-on acquisitions and greenfield expansions, equity and debt financings, litigation, corporate governance, and other needs.

Representative Experience

Our team works on transactions throughout the United States and Canada and across a diverse group of industries, with particular experience in commercial real estate, health care, manufacturing and distribution, automotive dealerships, energy, food and beverage, equipment rentals, litigation finance, environmental services, and waste and recycling. Our recent transaction experience includes:

Represented a private equity fund in connection with its platform acquisition of a hydraulic products manufacturing business and three subsequent add-on acquisitions in the United States and Canada with an aggregate transaction value of over $75 million.
Represented a fundless sponsor in all aspects of multiple platform acquisitions and add-on acquisitions to the platform companies, including leading the successful closings of the acquisitions and the related equity capital raises and debt financings.
Represented a regional clinical laboratory testing portfolio company in connection with seven add-on acquisitions with transaction values in the aggregate of over $140 million.
Represented a private equity fund in connection with the disposition of one of its portfolio companies to another private equity fund via a full auction process in a transaction valued in excess of $250 million.
Represented a private equity partner in an acquisition and redevelopment project built on 40 acres on the border of downtown Raleigh. Legal services included land use and entitlement review and overseeing local entitlements from site plan to building permit, including easements, covenants, and related legal documents from the City of Raleigh.
Represented a national restaurant supply portfolio company in connection with multiple add-on acquisitions.
Represented a national food service portfolio company in connection with three add-on acquisitions with an aggregate transaction value of over $150 million.
Represented a private equity fund in connection with its platform acquisition of an infrastructure safety solutions business with a transaction value of approximately $36 million.
Represented a plastic bottling manufacturer portfolio company in connection with multiple add-on acquisitions.
Represented a private equity fund in connection with its platform acquisition of the outstanding capital stock of a food production business in a transaction valued in excess of $42 million.
Represented a privately held company in connection with the sale of its consulting business to a private equity backed company.
Represented a privately held company in connection with the sale of its precision mechanical products manufacturing business and real property to a private equity backed company.