Kirkland & Ellis Advises on Management Buyout of Deutsche Bank's Private Equity Arm

The Kirkland & Ellis team was led in the U.S. by George Stamas and in Europe by Nigel Dunmore.  Other partners involved in the deal were Mark Director, Mike Edsall, Dan Eisner, Elizabeth Gottschalk, Mark Kovner, Alexandra Mihalas, Scott Moehrke, Greer Phillips, Fred Tanne, Kevin Treesh and John Van De North.

George Stamas, lead partner and senior corporate partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ Washington, DC office, commented: ”We believe that this transaction could be precedent setting to the financial industry.  It exemplifies how a bank may be moving back to its core roots in business.”

Nigel Dunmore, lead UK partner on this transaction and partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ London office, said: “Kirkland & Ellis’ involvement in this notable deal demonstrates the firm’s experience with handling complex and high-value multi-jurisdictional corporate transactions.”

DB Capital Partners is the private equity arm of Deutsche Bank AG, with offices in the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.  This MBO represents the latest in a number of major deals for Kirkland & Ellis’ pre-eminent European private equity team which over the last six months included acting for Madison Dearborn Partners in the $4 billion acquisition by tender offer of Jefferson Smurfit Group plc - one of the largest-ever leveraged buyouts in Europe.

Kirkland & Ellis also represented Madison Dearborn Partners when it spun off from BankOne, and CVC Capital Partners when it spun off from Citibank.  These are now two of the most successful private equity firms in the world.  Kirkland & Ellis is confident that the DB Capital MBO team will have similar success in the future.