King & Wood Mallesons, Latham & Watkins (KWM) and Cleveland firm BakerHostetler have advised on the $1bn sale of defense company Data Device Corporation (DDC) to TransDigm Group.
DDC, which designs data and motion control systems for advanced military and space vehicles, will be owned by US-listed aerospace manufacturer TransDigm after TransDigm pays $1bn for the parent company of DDC, ILC Holdings. ILC is owned by private equity firm Behrman Capital.
KWM acted on the deal alongside BakerHostetler which advised TransDigm on US aspects of the deal. Latham acted for Behrman Capital.
Latham’s team was led by Silicon Valley-based corporate partner Luke Bergstrom, as well as partners Anthony Klein, Laurence Stein, James Metz and San Francisco-based antitrust partner Joshua Holian.
The KWM team consisted of 30 lawyers led by London corporate partner Mark Sanders. Munich-based partners Lars Reubekeul and Tilman Siebert, Paris partners Pierre-Louis Perin and Anne Quenedey, Frankfurt-based Barbara Geck and London partners Ian Borman, James Walsh, Carl Richards, Wyn Derbyshire and Simon Holmes.
TransDigm is one of KWM’s major clients, with the firm acting on a number of transactions for the company, including its recent acquisition of Telair Group for $725m in 2015. The team for that deal was led by Germany based partner Michael Cziesla.
Sanders said: ‘This is another sizable acquisition for TransDigm, which meets TransDigm’s strategic, operational and value-creation criteria. We are delighted to have been able to use our transactional cross- border capabilities in Europe to support TransDigm, whilst also leveraging our expertise in the aerospace sector.’
The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2016.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk