The Firm is representing Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”), a portfolio company of Vestar Capital Partners (“Vestar”), and Vestar in the proposed acquisition of ISS by Genstar Capital for $720 million. The transaction is expected to close by early fourth quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals. The Firm previously represented Vestar in its acquisition of ISS from MSCI, Inc. in 2014.
ISS is the world’s leading provider of corporate governance and responsible investment solutions for financial market participants. ISS has more than 1,000 employees operating across 19 global offices in 13 countries, and its approximately 3,000 clients include many of the world’s-leading institutional investors, as well as public companies focused on governance risk mitigation.
The Simpson Thacher team includes Maripat Alpuche, Caroline Gottschalk, Jakob Rendtorff, Michael Panzer and Scott Rudin (M&A); David Rubinsky, Madeline Sprung-Keyser and Monisha Bhayana (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits); Gary Mandel and Michael Badain (Tax); Christopher Brown and Rustin Brown (Credit); Sarah Cogan and Benjamin Wells (Investment Adviser Act); Lori Lesser, Marcela Robledo, Linda Nyberg and Amber Harezlak (IP); Adeeb Fadil (Environmental); Shimeng Cheng and Chajin Wu (Derivatives); Steve DeLott (Insurance); and Peter Guryan, Kelly Karapetyan and Rick Jamgochian (Antitrust).