International law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP represented Silver Eagle Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: EAGLU), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in its initial public offering of 32,500,000 units, which closed on July 30, 2013. The units were sold at an offering price of $10.00 per unit for gross proceeds of approximately $325 million. This is the largest amount raised in an IPO by a U.S. SPAC in over seven years. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. acted as the sole book running manager and representative of the underwriters of the offering.
Silver Eagle is led by Harry Sloan, the former chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., and Jeff Sagansky, the former president of CBS Entertainment. Silver Eagle will seek to acquire media or entertainment businesses with high growth potential in the United States or internationally. No acquisition target has yet been identified.
Silver Eagle is the second SPAC sponsored by Sloan and Sagansky. McDermott also represented the first SPAC they sponsored, Global Eagle Acquisition Corp., in its $190 million IPO in 2011, and in the completion of its $430 million business combination with Row 44, Inc. and Advanced Inflight Alliance AG in January 2013.
“We are pleased that Silver Eagle team once again turned to McDermott to advise them on their SPAC IPO,” said Joel Rubinstein, a New York-based corporate partner and leader of McDermott’s SPAC practice. “The success of this offering demonstrates that there is significant investor demand for SPACs sponsored by strong management teams with demonstrated track records of success. We look forward to continuing to work with the Silver Eagle team as they seek a target for Silver Eagle’s business combination.”
During the past year, McDermott has also represented JWC Acquisition Corp. in its $500 million business combination with Tile Shop Holdings Inc. and ROI Acquisition Corp. in its $420 million business combination with EveryWare Global Inc. and currently is actively involved in a number of other SPAC IPOs and business combination transactions.
In addition to Mr. Rubinstein, the McDermott team included partners Jonathan Rochwarger, Daniel Zucker, as well as associates Harold Davidson, Laura Olch Rosenblum, Elliott M. Smith and Zachary Swartz.
Since 2003, McDermott has been a leader in representing issuers and underwriters in SPAC IPOs, and in representing SPACs and target companies in SPAC business combination transactions.
