Quicken Loans Parent Rocket Companies Completes $1.8 Billion IPO

Paul, Weiss advised Detroit-based Rocket Companies, Inc., an industry-leading real estate, mortgage and financial services company, in its initial public offering for 100 million shares at a price of $18 per share. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and RBC Capital Markets served as representatives of the underwriters for the IPO. Proceeds from the offering were used to purchase equity interests from Rock Holdings Inc., a holding company co-owned by Dan Gilbert, Rocket’s founder. Dan Gilbert and Rock Holdings Inc. continue to have majority voting control of the company following the IPO.

Rocket seeks to innovate the financial tech space and empower consumers through entities including Rocket Homes, Rocket Auto and Rocket Mortgage, the nation’s largest mortgage lender. The offering positions the company for increased growth in the next five to ten years. As the fifth largest company to go public in the last ten years, the IPO of Rocket is the largest in valuation since Uber went public in 2019. The deal highlights included a complicated governance up-C structure with high-vote low-vote stock, reorganization transactions and a tax receivable agreement, among other things.

The majority of the work for this IPO took place after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It could not have been completed without the diligent and persistent efforts of the entire Paul, Weiss team, which included over 20 partners, counsel and associates, integrating the securities, M&A, finance, tax and employee benefits practices.

The Paul, Weiss team included, among others, corporate partners John Kennedy, Scott Barshay, Jordan Yarett, Caith Kushner and Robert Zochowski and counsel Frances Mi; tax partner Brad Okun; employee benefits partner Jean McLoughlin and counsel Uri Horowitz; litigation partner Jaren Janghorbani; and intellectual property partner Claudine Meredith-Goujon.