Accolades

Paul Hastings Advised on a “Deal of the Decade” by Private Debt Investor

November 10, 2022

Paul Hastings has been recognized for its role in one of the top ten “deals of the decade” by Private Debt Investor. This list showcases defining, innovative deals of recent years that have helped shape the private debt market. We represented Blackstone Credit, Ares Corporation, and PSP Investments on the debt financing in connection with Thoma Bravo’s $6.6 billion acquisition of Stamps.com (now known as Auctane), a provider of e-commerce shipping software solutions. The transaction closed in October 2021. Blackstone Credit committed the majority of the transaction’s financing, making it one of the first lenders to engage in mega-unitranche deals. The deal ranked as the largest new direct loan ever in the private market and the $2.775 billion unitranche financing of the acquisition was the largest financing of its type done at the time. This transaction was also awarded “deal of the year” for 2021 by Private Debt Investor. The Financial Times stated that “the deal underscores the massive firepower private credit funds have amassed and how they are putting that case to work to finance bigger takeovers.” Paul Hastings’ longstanding experience in complex direct lending and syndicated lending financing was the catalyst for the deal’s success, with a team led by partner Michele Cohen, as well as Danny Choi, Kris Villarreal, Mitch Zuckerman, Stephen Rettger, and Annie Zhao.