Davis Polk & Wardwell and Weil Gotshal & Manges have won roles on the $13bn (£9bn) merger of analytics providers IHS and Markit.
Weil Gotshal & Manges advised IHS with a team based in both the US and UK. New York partner Michael Aiello led on corporate matters, while partners Kenneth Heitner and David Irvine were involved on the tax side.
Irvine was the sole City partner to win work on the transaction, with New York partners Allison Liff, Heather Emmel and Paul Wessel handling banking, capital markets and executive compensation matters respectively.
Washington DC antitrust partner John Scribner and New York technology partner Charan Sandhu were also on hand for IHS, which is a New York listed provider of insight and business analysis.
London-headquartered rival and merger partner Markit turned to longstanding adviser Davis Polk & Wardwell. The US firm fielded a team led by partners Louis Goldberg and Oliver Smith, both based in New York. Richard Truesdell and Mark Mendez advised on capital markets issues with Michael Mollerus and Jonathan Cooklin giving tax advice. Executive compensation partner Jeffrey Crandall was also involved.
Under the terms of the merger, the new company will be renamed IHS Markit and will be headquartered in London with other operations based in Colorado.
Background to the deal
Davis Polk has been a longstanding adviser of Markit, representing the company on its 2014 initial public offering on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. The IPO included the reincorporation of Markit from the UK to Bermuda via a UK scheme of arrangement. It was the largest US IPO offering by a European issuer in 2014.
On this transaction, Weil Gotshal won the lead mandate for IHS. However, Davis Polk also has a longstanding relationship with the provider acting on its acquisition of Carproof Corporation last year and term loan amendments earlier in 2016.
