Patrick Ryan served as the long-time head of Simpson Thacher’s Banking and Credit Group as well as a member of the Firm’s Executive, Compensation and New Partners Committees, among others. Patrick regularly represents leading financial institutions, investment banks and other lenders in connection with the arrangement and syndication of senior credit facilities, including acquisition, bridge and other corporate financings. He has significant experience in complicated financings in the leveraged finance, investment-grade, private credit and asset-based markets, often working with clients to develop innovative structures or to find solutions to difficult issues. “In high-grade acquisition finance,” reports Chambers, “his knowledge of precedent in the legal market is unbelievable.” He has also advised on special situations and the restructuring of existing credit facilities and other related financings, including DIP and exit financings.
Patrick’s financial institution and investment banking clients include JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Canada, HSBC and Barclays, among others. Patrick also represents companies in connection with their financing activities, and his clients have included American Media, AOL, Bard, Cengage Learning, Evercore, Hulu, iHeartMedia, MasterCard, News Corporation, Radioshack, Sky Deutschland, Travelers Companies, 21st Century Fox and Universal Studios, among others. Patrick is also active in representing clients in sports and entertainment ventures, including the representation of Forest City Ratner Companies and other investors in connection with the acquisition and relocation of the Nets NBA franchise to Brooklyn. Recently, Patrick has been representing clients in partnerships between banks and credit funds in connection with the continued growth of the private credit and alternative capital market.
Notable recent transactions include representing:
- The financing providers in CVS Health Corporation’s acquisition of Oak Street Health in an all-cash transaction for $39 per share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $10.6 billion
- JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs Lending Partners in $41.5 billion of financing for the combination of AT&T’s WarnerMedia with Discovery
- Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs Bank and Goldman Sachs Lending Partners in $19.3 billion of financing for AerCap Holdings N.V.’s acquisition of GE Capital Aviation Services
- JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions as lenders to Humana in its buyout of Kindred at Home
- JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada and RBC Capital Markets in the financing of Canadian National Railway Co.’s bid to combine with Kansas City Southern
- Lead arrangers, led by JPMorgan in a new first-priority senior secured term loan credit facility for Carnival Corporation, comprised of two tranches in an aggregate principal amount of $1.86 billion and €800 million, respectively
- JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs in bridge financing for IBM’s approximately $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, Inc.
- Joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners in financing Tenneco’s acquisition of Federal-Mogul from Icahn Enterprises for a total consideration of $5.4 billion to be funded through cash, Tenneco equity and assumption of debt
- Barclays, as lead arranger, in the arrangement of committed bridge financings for an aggregate amount of approximately $3.74 billion related to Regal Beloit’s acquisition of Rexnord’s Process & Motion Control segment in a Reverse Morris Trust transaction
- Lender in bridge financing for Boston Scientific’s approximately $4.2 billion acquisition of BTG
- Lenders in $12.5 billion of bridge financing for Thermo Fisher Scientific’s acquisition of Life Technologies Corporation
- Lenders in $5.1 billion of financing for Avago Technologies’ acquisition of LSI Corporation
- JPMorgan and Wells Fargo in $1.475 billion in financing for Wolverine World Wide’s acquisition of the Performance + Lifestyle Group business of Collective Brands
- JPMorgan and arrangers in $3.1 billion in financing related to the merger of Dex Media and SuperMedia and their emergence from Chapter 11
Patrick was named a Banking “MVP” by Law360 in 2021, and is consistently ranked among the leading banking and finance lawyers in the United States and the world by publications such as Chambers USA, Chambers Global, The Legal 500 United States, IFLR1000 and The Best Lawyers in New York.
Patrick received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Manhattan College in 1985 and his J.D., cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law in 1989. He spent a year at University of Dublin, Trinity College from 1985 to 1986.