The Firm represented SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. ("SeaWorld Entertainment"), a portfolio company of The Blackstone Group L.P. (“Blackstone”), and certain selling stockholders affiliated with Blackstone (the “Selling Stockholders”), in connection with a public offering of common stock by the Selling Stockholders. Concurrently with the closing of the offering, SeaWorld Entertainment repurchased 1,500,000 shares of its common stock directly from the Selling Stockholders in a private, non-underwritten transaction at a price per share equal to the price per share paid to the Selling Stockholders by the underwriters in the offering. SeaWorld Entertainment is a leading theme park and entertainment company with a diversified portfolio of 11 destination and regional theme parks in the United States, many of which showcase its one-of-a-kind collection of approximately 67,000 marine and terrestrial animals.
The Selling Stockholders sold 18,000,000 shares of common stock in the offering. In addition, the Selling Stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,700,000 shares from the Selling Stockholders. The Selling Stockholders received all of the net proceeds from the offering. Shares of SeaWorld Entertainment are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “SEAS.”
Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan acted as joint bookrunning managers and as representatives of the underwriters in the offering. Deutsche Bank Securities, BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citigroup and Wells Fargo Securities were also bookrunners in the offering. Blackstone Capital Markets, Lazard Capital Markets, Macquarie Capital, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Nomura, Piper Jaffray, Drexel Hamilton, LLC and Ramirez & Co., Inc. acted as co-managers in the offering.
The Simpson Thacher team included Lauren Yoon, David Azarkh, Jason Pearl and Kai Fan (Capital Markets); Wilson Neely, Ravi Agarwal and Lauren Shohat (M&A); Gregory Grogan and Douglas Tang (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits); Dov Gottlieb and Frank Kwok (Public Company Advisory Practice); Gary Mandel, Jonathan Cantor and Vanessa Grieve (Tax); Genevieve Dorment, Samantha Himelman and Jennifer Gaudette (Intellectual Property); Krista McManus (Real Estate); Adeeb Fadil (Environmental) and Andrew Pagliughi (FINRA).