Kirkland Advises Blackstone’s Tropical Smoothie on $270 Million WBS Issuance, Including $90 Million of Subordinated Class M Notes
Kirkland & Ellis represented Blackstone-sponsored Tropical Smoothie Cafe, LLC (TSC) in connection with the issuance of its Series 2026-1 term notes under its whole business securitization (WBS) facility. The issuance comprised $180 million of Class A-2 notes and $90 million of subordinated Class M notes, which are the first tranche of subordinated notes issued by TSC and among the first issued in the WBS market. The notes were supported entirely by system growth, highlighting TSC’s strong performance. The transaction enables TSC to further monetize its brand and assets and provides the company with the flexibility to issue additional series in the future if certain requirements are met.
The Kirkland team included structured finance lawyers John Harrison, Michael Urschel, Jessica Monahan, Amer Mohiuddin, Leo Robles-Rodriguez, Kelli Johnson, Suril Patel and Brandon Karas; capital markets lawyers Leia Pearl Andrew, Alex Saenz and Aaron Simons; technology & IP transactions lawyers Alex Barata, Daisy Darvall and Kyla Risko; investment funds lawyer Phil Vincent Giglio; investment funds ERISA lawyer Joseph Lifsics; employment & labor lawyer Jackie Heffernan; debt finance lawyer Erik Hepler; sustainability lawyer Mary Beth Houlihan; tax lawyers Richard Husseini, Karissa Leffingwell, Jon Nelsen and Benjamin Schreiner; banking regulatory lawyer Julie Kunetka; litigation lawyer Nick Niles; and employee benefits lawyer Caitlin Bernice Pyrce.
