Simpson Thacher represented Blackstone/GSO Senior Floating Rate Term Fund (the “Fund”) in connection with its initial public offering of common shares of beneficial interest. The offering raised approximately $303 million, after the exercise of the underwriters’ overallotment option. The offering is the first closed-end fund initial public offering sponsored by The Blackstone Group L.P. (“Blackstone”). The Fund is a newly organized, non-diversified, closed-end management investment company which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BSL”. The underwriting syndicate for the offering was led by Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, UBS Securities LLC and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC.
The Fund's primary investment objective is to seek high current income, with a secondary objective to seek preservation of capital, consistent with its primary goal of high current income. The Fund will seek to achieve these investment objectives by investing primarily in senior, secured floating rate loans.
GSO/Blackstone Debt Funds Management LLC is the Fund's investment adviser (the “Adviser”). The Adviser is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GSO Capital Partners LP (“GSO”), the credit platform of Blackstone. Blackstone is a leading manager of private capital and provider of financial advisory services. It is one of the largest independent managers of private capital in the world, with assets under management of $104.5 billion as of March 31, 2010. As of March 31, 2010, GSO's asset management operation had aggregate assets under management of approximately $24.3 billion across multiple strategies within the leveraged finance marketplace, including leveraged loans, high yield bonds, distressed and mezzanine debt and private equity, including hedge funds.
The Simpson Thacher team for the transaction included: Sarah Cogan, Robert Griffith, Rafael Vasquez, and Benjamin Wells (Capital Markets); and Marcy Geller, Jonathan Cantor and Rian Balfour (Tax). Paralegals Natalie Kone and Matthew Dresher provided valuable assistance.