Christodoulos
Kaoutzanis

Chris Kaoutzanis is a partner in the Capital Markets Group. Chris advises financial sponsors and issuers on public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, leveraged finance transactions and general corporate and securities law matters.

Chris has experience representing financial sponsors and issuers, including prominent international shipping companies, gaming companies and home security companies, in initial public offerings, secondary equity offerings, high-yield and investment-grade debt offerings, secured and unsecured credit transactions, and disclosure and corporate governance matters. In 2024, Chris was recognized by Law360 as a “Rising Star” in Capital Markets. In 2023, Chris was recognized by Lawdragon as a “500 X – The Next Generation” lawyer.

Chris’s recent transactions include representing:

Initial Public Offerings

• Savers Value Village in its $461.4 million initial public offering
• Rocket Companies in its $2 billion initial public offering
• PlayAGS in its $164 million initial public offering
• ADT in its $1.5 billion initial public offering

Spin-Offs

• General Electric in:
  • its spin-off of its renewable energy and power businesses and launch of GE Vernova
  • the spin-off of its healthcare business and launch of GE HealthCare Technologies
• Inhibrx in the spin-off of its drug discovery pipeline and sale of assets to Sanofi
• Brooks Automation in the separation of its business into two independent, publicly-traded companies

Follow-On Equity Offerings

• Apollo Global Management and its portfolio companies in various matters, including:
  • as lead investors in the $1.75 billion convertible preferred investment in Albertsons Companies
  • in its $1.438 billion offering of 6.75% Series A mandatory convertible preferred stock
  • in its $275 million registered public offering of 6.375% Series A Preferred Shares and $300 million registered public offering of 6.375% Series B Preferred Shares
• Spire in its $127.1 million secondary offering and forward transaction of shares of common stock
• Star Bulk Carriers in numerous public offerings of common shares

Secondary Equity Offerings

• Apollo Global Management and its portfolio companies in various matters, including:
  • in secondary offerings of common stock of TD SYNNEX Corporation
  • Sun Country Airlines Holdings in its secondary offering
  • ADT in its secondary offerings
  • PlayAGS in its secondary offerings
• Savers Value Village in its secondary offering
• Certain entities managed by Silver Point Capital and MacKay Shields in secondary offerings of common stock of Gulfport Energy
• General Electric in:
  • secondary offerings of common shares of AerCap Holdings
  • the disposition of $7.5 billion of common stock of GE HealthCare Technologies, through debt-for-equity exchanges
• Driven Brands and Roark in the secondary offerings by Roark of common stock of Driven Brands
• Star Bulk Carriers and Oaktree in the secondary offerings by Oaktree of common shares of Star Bulk

Debt Offerings

• Carrier Global Corporation in its offering of $3 billion of U.S. dollar-denominated notes and €2.35 billion of euro-denominated notes, in connection with its acquisition of the climate solutions business of Viessmann Group
• Apollo Global Management in public registered offerings of:
  • $500 million of 6.000% fixed-rate resettable junior subordinate notes
  • $500 million of 6.375% senior notes
  • $600 million of 7.625% fixed-rate resettable junior subordinate notes
  • $750 million of 5.800% senior notes
• Apollo Management Holdings, an indirect subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, in its offerings of:
  • $300 million of 5.000% senior notes
  • $550 million of 4.872% senior notes
  • an additional $125 million of 4.872% senior notes
  • $500 million of 2.650% senior notes
  • $325 million aggregate principal amount of 4.77% Series A senior secured guaranteed notes
  • $300 million of 4.950% Fixed-Rate Resettable subordinated notes
• Lottomatica in its offering of €1.115 billion of notes consisting of €565 million 7.125% senior secured notes and €550 million senior secured floating rate notes
• Garrett Motion in its offering of $800 million 7.750% senior unsecured notes
• GE HealthCare in its offering of $8.25 billion senior notes in connection with its spin-off from General Electric and related debt-for-debt exchange, including subsequent A/B Exchange Offer
• Carnival Corporation & plc in an offering of $2.0125 billion of 5.75% convertible senior notes
• Rocket Companies in its offering of $2 billion of senior notes, consisting of $1.15 billion of 2.875% senior notes and $850 million of 4.000% senior notes, as well as a related tender offer for any and all of Rocket Mortgage’s 5.250% senior notes
• MidCap Financial in its $400 million offering of 5.625% senior notes
• Searchlight Capital in its €150 million financing through a back-leverage facility based on repurchase transactions and a parallel transaction involving a loan repackaging facility with Deutsche Bank
• Star Bulk Carriers in a public registered offering of $50 million of 8.30% senior unsecured notes and a public registered offering of $50 million of 8.0% senior unsecured notes
• Virtu Financial its offering of $500 million 7.50% senior first lien notes

Capital Markets Aspects of M&A Transactions

• Ares Management in its acquisition of Form Technologies and the related recapitalization of Form
• Strategic Value Partners in its $1.125 billion acquisition of Revelyst, a segment of Vista Outdoor
• Metronet, a portfolio company of Oak Hill Capital, in its sale to a joint venture between T-Mobile and KKR
• Crown Castle in its successful proxy fight against Boots Capital
• Endeavor Energy Resources in its $26 billion merger with Diamondback Energy
• Acerinox in its $970 million acquisition of Haynes International
• Inhibrx in the $2.2 billion sale of INBRX-101 to Sanofi and the related spin-off of Inhibrx Biosciences
• Restaurant Brands International (RBI) in its $1 billion acquisition of Carrols Restaurant Group
• Trawlers Limited in an agreement with Manchester United plc under which Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of INEOS, will acquire 25% of Manchester United’s Class B shares from the Glazer family and initiate a tender offer to acquire up to 25% of the publicly listed Class A shares in Manchester United plc
• Chevron in its $60 billion acquisition of Hess Corporation
• Chico’s FAS in its $1 billion sale to Sycamore Partners
• WestRock in its $20 billion combination with Smurfit Kappa, creating Smurfit WestRock
• Ares Management’s Private Equity Group as lead investor in a $550 million growth investment in Virgin Voyages
• Kohlberg & Co. in its acquisition of Worldwide Clinical Trials
• Amazon in its $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical
• Mizuho Financial Group in its $550 million acquisition of Greenhill & Co.
• Merck & Co. in its $10.8 billion acquisition of Prometheus Biosciences
• The special committee of Duck Creek Technologies’ board of directors in connection with Duck Creek’s $2.6 billion take-private sale to Vista Equity Partners
• Carrier Global in:
  • the $4.95 billion sale of its security business, Global Access Solutions, to Honeywell
  • its €12 billion acquisition of Viessmann Climate Solutions
  • the $3.1 billion sale of its Chubb fire and security business to APi Group
• Rocket Companies in:
  • its $9.4 billion acquisition of Mr. Cooper Group
  • its $1.75 billion acquisition of Redfin
  • a transaction to collapse its current Up-C structure, eliminating its high-vote/low-vote structure and reduce its classes of common stock from four to two
  • its $1.275 billion acquisition of Truebill
• Apollo Global Management and its portfolio companies in various matters, including:
  • in its approximately $1.5 billion acquisition of Bridge Investment Group Holdings
  • in its acquisition of the U.S. wealth distribution and asset management businesses of Griffin Capital
  • in a $1.2 billion equity investment by State Farm in ADT
  • in its $1.55 billion investment in Athene Holding
  • its affiliate ATLAS SP, in an investment by MassMutual
  • in its acquisition of Argo Infrastructure Partners
• ADT in:
  • a $450 million investment from Google
  • its $381 million cash-and-stock acquisition of Defenders
• General Electric in the more than $30 billion combination of its jet leasing unit, GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), with AerCap Holdings
• The Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Pattern Energy Group in its approximately $6.1 billion all-cash acquisition by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB)
• Movado Group in its acquisition of MVMT Watches
• Qualcomm in the proposed acquisition by its subsidiary of NXP Semiconductors N.V.
• ARIAD Pharmaceuticals in its approximately $5.2 billion acquisition by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company
• Excel Maritime Carriers in the $634.91 million sale of its vessels to Star Bulk Carriers
• Oceanbulk Companies in its $650 million merger with Star Bulk Carriers

Other Representations

• An ad hoc group of prepetition second lien lenders in the chapter 11 cases of FULLBEAUTY Brands and certain affiliates, which restructured more than $1.2 billion of prepetition debt through a prepackaged plan of reorganization that was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York less than 24 hours after the company filed for chapter 11 protection
• Margin loan facilities for private equity sponsorship