Achievements

A Latham infrastructure team advised XpFibre, the largest independent Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) infrastructure operator in France, on its €5.8 billion debt refinancing, one of the largest European digital infrastructure financing transactions to date. The landmark deal for the European fibre infrastructure market represents a fundamental shift toward a more utility-like infrastructure platform financing, reflecting the mature nature of XpFibre’s business, the long-term nature of its contracted revenues, and the supportive regulatory framework.

A multidisciplinary Latham team advised Endeavor in its sale of its sports assets, including Professional Bull Riders, On Location, and IMG, to TKO Group Holdings, a premium sports and entertainment company. The all-equity transaction is valued at US$3.25 billion. TKO’s strategic acquisition of these sports and hospitality assets adds to its existing core of UFC and WWE businesses and expands its operational footprint in the fast-growing premium sports market.  

A London-led Latham team advised existing owners EQT, CPP Investments, and Nord Anglia Education on its US$14.5 billion sale to a consortium including Neuberger Berman Private Markets, EQT, CPP Investments, and other global investors in a landmark transaction for the global education sector. Nord Anglia Education, a leading international schools organization, operates over 80 schools in 33 countries, educating more than 85,000 students. The consortium aims to diversify Nord Anglia Education's shareholder base, ensuring long-term growth and stability.

A cross-practice Latham team advised Hyundai Motor India Ltd. on its US$3.3 billion initial public offering on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE). The transaction marks the largest initial public offering in India to date and the second largest IPO globally this year. This is Hyundai Motors’ first listing of a unit outside of South Korea, with proceeds expected to enhance research and development for the automaker as part of its efforts to further improve market share in one of the world’s fastest growing auto markets.

Latham represents semiconductor leader Wolfspeed in securing funding agreements with the US Department of Commerce in one of the first grants under the CHIPS and Science Act and a consortium of strategic investment funds in one of the largest private capital deals of 2024. The US Department of Commerce and Wolfspeed announced a preliminary memorandum for up to US$750 million in direct funding. Additionally, a consortium led by Apollo, The Baupost Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Capital Group will provide an additional US$750 million. These investments, along with US$1 billion in expected cash tax refunds, will provide Wolfspeed access of up to $2.5 billion to expand silicon carbide manufacturing in the US.

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 Latham infrastructure team has advised the funders to Budapest Airport Zrt. on the amendment and restatement of its financing platform and concession arrangements in connection with its sale. The airport was sold by AviAlliance (a wholly owned subsidiary of PSP Investments), GIC, and CDPQ to the Hungarian state-owned investment fund Corvinus Zrt., along with French co-investor Vinci Airports. The transaction is valued at €3.1 billion (equity value), with an additional net debt of €1.2 billion as of December 2023, amounting to €4.3 billion.

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.