Latham Advises HPS Investment Partners on Investment in GardaWorld

Alongside GardaWorld founder, chairman, president, and CEO Stephan Crétier, funds advised by HPS Investment Partners (HPS), a leading global investment firm with approximately US$147 billion of assets under management, together with Oak Hill Advisors (OHA), One Investment Management (OneIM) and others, have reached a definitive agreement to acquire BC Partners' majority equity interest in Garda World Security Corporation (GardaWorld), an entrepreneurial-driven corporation that builds global champions in security services, AI-enabled security technologies, integrated risk management and cash automation solutions, in a transaction valuing GardaWorld at C$13.5 billion. Following the close of the transaction, Stephan Crétier, together with select members of Management, will hold approximately 70% of GardaWorld and HPS, which is leading a group of sophisticated minority investors, will hold the remaining equity interest. BC Partners will also continue to hold a minority stake.

Latham & Watkins LLP represents HPS in the transaction with a corporate team led by New York partners Stelios Saffos, Peter Sluka, Alex Kelly, Salvatore Vanchieri, and New York counsel Alyssa Galinsky, with associates Karen Song, Matthew DeSilva, Christopher Cruickshank, and Gabe Marx. Advice was also provided on tax matters by New York partner Jocelyn Noll; on benefits and compensation matters by New York partner Max Raskin; on labor matters by Chicago partner Nineveh Alkhas, with associate Jocelyn Wexler; on intellectual property matters by New York partner Jessica Cohen, with associate Ece Gonulal; on real estate matters by associate Thomas Ficchi; on data privacy matters by Bay Area partner Robert Blamires, with associate Priyanka Krishnamurthy; on environmental matters by Los Angeles/Houston partner Joshua Marnitz, with associate Brandon Kerns; on anti-bribery and anti-corruption matters by New York partner Mathew Salerno, with associate Eliane Bejjani; on sanctions and AML matters by Thomas Lane and Eric Green; on government contracts matters by Washington, D.C. partners Kyle Jefcoat and Anne Robinson, with Washington, D.C. counsel Morgan Maddoux; on antitrust matters by Washington, D.C. partner Patrick English; and on foreign direct investment and ex-US antitrust matters by Hamburg partner Jana Dammann and Brussels counsel Wesley Lepla, with associate Panagiotis Kokkinidis.