Sidley Austin LLP acted as primary legal counsel advising Starwood Property Trust, Inc. and Starwood Capital Group on their agreement to acquire LNR Property LLC for $1.05 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Starwood Property Trust will acquire LNR’s U.S. and European real estate debt investing and special services businesses, Hatfield Phillips, and Starwood Capital Group will acquire LNR’s commercial property group. Both entities will also acquire a stake in Auction.com, an online provider of commercial and residential transaction management services. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2013.
“The Sidley team was uniquely positioned to guide us through the complexities of this deal, particularly given the Firm’s strength in securitization work and its expertise in the special servicing industry,” said Andrew Sossen, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of Starwood Property Trust. “We appreciate their efforts in helping us on this transaction.”
The Sidley deal team consisted of lawyers across the U.S. and Europe practicing in multiple disciplines, including mergers and acquisitions, commercial mortgage securitization, tax, real estate, regulatory and benefits.
“Our multi-disciplinary team was able to bring to this deal a level of knowledge and sophistication that few can match,” said George Petrow, managing partner of the Firm’s European region. “In particular, we have a large number of securitization and real estate lawyers in both the U.S. and Europe whose experience was quite important for our client.”
“It’s always our goal to provide clients the highest level of service, and we were able to do that here by tapping into the vast network of talented lawyers at Sidley,” said Michael Gordon, partner and one of the lead lawyers on this transaction. “We worked in tandem with our colleagues across numerous offices, leveraging our combined experience across practice sectors to establish our client as a leading real estate finance company.”
