Ropes & Gray advised on $33bn in PE-backed deals in Q1

New York law firm Ropes & Gray announced that it signed 52 private equity-backed deals last quarter, with valuations of roughly $33 billion as dealmaking picked up at the beginning of 2022.

The firm said that its work included 19 middle-market transactions valued at $6 billion, spanning software, life sciences, health care technology, consumer hardware, semiconductors, digital platforms and fintech. All of last year the legal team advised on more than 220 private equity deals valued at more than $200 billion, which set new record following 2020’s 190 transactions valued a $140 billion.

“Ropes & Gray picked up in the first quarter at much the same pace that characterized the firm’s record-breaking performance in 2021,” said David Blittner, co-chair of Ropes & Gray’s private equity transactions group. “Our private equity attorneys are representing a larger and more diverse group of clients investing in a wider assortment of sectors than ever before.”

The first quarter work included Genstar Capital’s investment in Lightspeed Systems in partnership with Madison Dearborn Partners and Berkshire Partners investment in Ensemble Health Partners, in partnership with Warburg Pincus. Other deals were:

• Genstar Capital in its investment in Lightspeed Systems, in partnership with Madison Dearborn Partners.
• Berkshire Partners in its investment in Ensemble Health Partners, in partnership with Warburg Pincus.
• TPG Capital in the $4.3 billion sale of Wind River, a software company, to Aptiv PLC.
• New Mountain Capital in the sale of Cloudmed to R1 RCM, Inc., a transaction that values Cloudmed at approximately $4.1 billion.
• Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe and portfolio company Valtruis in the three-way merger of Fresenius Health Partners, InterWell Health and Cricket Health, in transactions valued at $2.4 billion, creating a U.S. kidney care provider operating as InterWell Health.
• Thomas H. Lee Partners in its acquisition of Intelligent Medical Objects, a healthcare data enablement provider, from Warburg Pincus.
• TPG Capital in closing its sale, valued at $14 billion, of McAfee Corp. to a consortium led by Advent International and Permira Advisers and Crosspoint Capital.

“The firm’s continued growth is testament to the strong client relationships which our attorneys continue to build with private equity clients both in the U.S. and around the world,” said Carolyn Vardi, head of the firm’s private equity industry group. “Ropes & Gray is on the cutting edge of private equity-backed transactional work.”