KKR bulks up legal team for listing

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is assembling a team of prominent law firms led by Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett to assist on its planned listing later this year.
KKR and its team of advisors have drawn up a plan to acquire and de-list its Euronext-traded fund, KKR Private Equity Investors, then list the combined entity on the New York Stock Exchange later this year. The deal comes a year after KKR first registered for a $1.25 billion IPO in June 2007.
Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett, led by partner Alan Klein, are acting as lead counsel to KKR for the transaction. KKR has long been a client of Simpson Thatcher.
Last November, KKR lured Simpson Thatcher attorney David Sorkin to become its first ever in-house general counsel. The Simpson Thatcher team for the transaction is led by partner Alan Klein, and includes partners Joseph Kaufman, Alvin Brown, Lori Lesser, Steven Todrys and Andrea Wahlquist.
KKR has also brought in Linklaters, its fund counsel, to advise on Dutch law. Linklaters partner Scott Bowie and counsel Wim Hazeleger are the lead advisors. KKR PEI has hired French firm Bredin Prat as lead counsel.
Cravath Swaine & Moore, which represented the underwriters when KKR PEI went public in May 2006, is acting as US counsel to the independent directors of the general partner of the European fund. The Cravath team is led by partner George Stephanakis.
Weil Gotshal & Manges is representing KKR PEI’s financial advisers Citi and Lazard. The Weil Gotshal team is led by New York corporate partners Michael Aiello and Thomas Roberts. A Paris corporate partner Claude Serra and London corporate partner Mike Francies are also participating.
De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is acting as Dutch counsel for KKR PEI. Ogier partner Roger Le Tissier is acting as counsel in Guernsey, Channel Islands, where the affiliate’s general partner, KKR Guernsey GP, is based.
This is not the first private equity listing Simpson Thatcher has engineered. The firm advised The Blackstone Group on its initial public offering last June, along with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Skadden also represented Fortress Investment Group on its IPO that February.