Sven Mickisch

Sven Mickisch is the Managing Partner of Simpson Thacher’s Financial Institutions Practice.  He advises on complex, high profile and often groundbreaking transactions and corporate matters across the financial services space. He has significant experience advising financial institutions in mergers, acquisitions, strategic investments, consortia and financing transactions and has handled numerous restructurings and recapitalizations of financial institutions. He also regularly advises private equity firms transacting in the financial services sector.  Sven has been repeatedly recognized by Chambers USA, Chambers FinTech, New York Law Journal, Who’s Who Legal, Law360 and Euromoney.

Prior to joining Simpson Thacher, Sven was a partner at another AmLaw 100 firm where he held several leadership positions.

Notable experience prior to joining Simpson Thacher includes representing:

Banking / Specialty Finance

• American Express in the sale of its international banking division to Standard Chartered
• Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin in its sale to Old National Bancorp, as well as its prior recapitalization, which was implemented via a “prepackaged” bankruptcy process
• Banc of California in its merger with PacWest and concurrent capital raise from Warburg Pincus and Centerbridge
• Bank of N.T. Butterfield in its recapitalization led by Carlyle, CIBC and other institutional investors, and its offering of preference shares guaranteed by the government of Bermuda
• Bear Stearns in its sale to JPMorgan Chase
• BNP Paribas in the sale of its oil and gas reserve-based lending business in the U.S. and Canada to Wells Fargo
• CMS in its sale of EnerBank to Regions Financial
• DMG Bancshares in its capital raise anchored by Stone Point and Reverence Capital, and its acquisition of California First National Bank
• First Bancorp in its acquisition of Banco Santander Puerto Rico
• Flagstar in its acquisition of a Midwest branch network from Wells Fargo and its merger with New York Community Bancorp
• Green Bancorp in its IPO, its acquisitions of multiple community banks and its merger with Veritex Holdings
• Greentech Capital Advisors in its sale to Nomura
• Hanover Bancorp in its successful proxy contest against a dissident shareholder
• HCBF Holding Company in its merger with CenterState Banks
• Jefferies in its acquisition of the operations of Faros Trading
• Leerink Partners in its sale to SVB Financial Group and the subsequent management-led repurchase of SVB Securities following the failure of SVB
• New York Community Bancorp in its recapitalization via a capital raise led by Liberty Strategic Capital, Hudson Bay and Reverence Capital
• SKBHC Holdings in its acquisition of AmericanWest Bank via a first-of-its-kind Section 363 bankruptcy process, and in follow-on acquisitions of multiple community banks
• Sound Bank in its implementation of a new strategic plan and recapitalization by institutional and local investors
• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in its investments in Ares Management and Moelis & Company; its acquisition of American Railcar Leasing; its strategic alliance and investment in Jefferies; and its divestiture of SMBC Rail Services
• Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in its acquisition of an equity stake in Midwest Rail Corp. from Marubeni Corporation and its investment in GreensLedge Holdings
• The special committee of the board of directors of UnionBanCal Corporation in its going-private transaction with majority shareholder Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
• Veritex in its investment in Thrive Mortgage
• Wells Fargo in connection with the sale of its Institutional Retirement & Trust business to Principal Financial Group; its sale of its student loan business; and the sale of its asset management business to a group consisting of GTCR and Reverence Capital
• Yadkin Financial Corporation in its acquisition of NewBridge Bancorp and its sale to F.N.B. Corporation

Financial Technology

• American Express in its acquisition of Loungebuddy
• American Express, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo in their formation of TruSight
• Bank of New York Mellon, Computershare, Clearstream, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and State Street in their investment in Proxymity
• BNP Paribas, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase in their investment in blockchain market infrastructure platform HQLAx
• Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase in their investment in Access Fintech
• Deutsche Bank in its investment in Modo Payments
• eToro in its business combination with FinTech Acquisition Corp. V
• E*TRADE in its sale to Morgan Stanley
• Jefferies in the sale of FastMatch to Euronext
• JPMorgan Chase in the sale of its blockchain platform Quorum to, and concurrent strategic investment in, ConsenSys Software
• Live Oak in its investment in Finxact
• Nasdaq in its spin-off of Nasdaq Private Markets (NPM) and concurrent investment in NPM by a consortium of bank partners, including SVB Financial Group, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley
• Vantiv in its acquisition of Worldpay Group
• Worldpay in its merger with FIS
• Zip in its acquisition of QuadPay

Financial Services Private Equity

• Blackstone in its acquisition of a controlling stake in Exeter Finance; the acquisition by its portfolio company Lendmark Financial Services of certain branch offices and related loan assets from Springleaf Financial; and the sale of Lendmark Financial Services to Lightyear Capital
• Fortress in connection with the recapitalization of Bay Cities National Bank (renamed Opus Bank); the merger between Opus Bank and Pacific Premier Bancorp; and its portfolio company Cetera Financial Group in its sale to Genstar
• Further Global in its acquisition of a controlling stake in U.S. Claims
• Pine Brook in its acquisition of United PanAm Financial Corporation; its investment in Better Mortgage, Inc.; its investment in Fair Square Financial Holdings LLC; its investment in Origin Bancorp, Inc.; its acquisition of Triumph Capital Advisors LLC (renamed White Star Asset Management); and White Star’s sale to Clearlake Capital
• Stone Point in its investments in TIAA Bank, TriState Capital and Atlantic Capital Bancshares, Inc.; the recapitalization of Standard Bancshares, Inc. and its subsequent sale to First Midwest Bancorp, Inc.; its portfolio company AloStar Bank of Commerce in its sale to State Bank and Trust Company; and its portfolio company Stretto in its acquisition of CINgroup
• TPG in its acquisition of The Warranty Group, Inc. and its subsequent business combination transaction with Assurant; its investment in GreenSky Trade Credit; its investment in Varo Money, Inc.; and its sale of Direct General Corporation
• a consortium consisting of WL Ross & Co., Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and Centerbridge in the acquisition of the banking operations of BankUnited, FSB in an auction by the FDIC, as receiver
• a consortium consisting of Starwood Capital Group, TPG Capital, Perry Capital and a joint venture between WL Ross & Co. and LeFrak Organization in their acquisition of an equity stake in a limited liability company that holds loan and real estate assets formerly owned by Corus Bank, N.A. in an auction by the FDIC, as receiver

Other Financial Services

• MetLife in its acquisition of AFP Provida
• Morgan Stanley in its acquisition of CLO assets of Assurant
• Refco in the sale of Refco’s global regulated futures brokerage business to Man Financial, Inc. in a bankruptcy auction
• Wilton Re in its sale to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Sven received his J.D from Columbia Law School in 2005, where he was a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He received his LL.B. from London School of Economics and Political Science in 2004, where he received the Sir Morris Finer Memorial Prize. He is admitted to practice in New York.