Most complicated deal you've been staffed on

Curious to hear the story and background of the most complicated transaction you have been staffed on. Obviously, don't give any info out that may give away who the parties were.

I wish I had something more exciting to share - my most "exciting" transaction was a multi-part transaction which divested most of the operating entities of the parent company, and the other "part" was a sale of a product line. Needless to say, I wish I had more experience with more complicated transactions such as tax-free spinoffs. Maybe one day..

24 Comments
 

Healthcare deal where company would buy geographic assets from counterparty, counterparty would buy equity in client to fund further research and approval of assets with cash to client based on approval/development milestones and equity based milestones to client based on sales milestones; client wanted counterparty to fund portions of research if trails advanced and counterparty wanted to own more of client if that was the case, so would have option to buy equity at a predetermined price (negotiated premium to stock price). Also contemplated royalty payments to counterparty from client based on sales milestones. Very complicated on a probability weighted NPV value to bridge the gap between parties.

Rationale: counterparty wanted toehold in client, which specialized in non-core assets of counterparty and did not want to take the assets to market. Client wanted to have assets and did not have geographic presence. If deal went well, counterparty had stake that could fend off competition from buying and on a present value made the milestone and royalty payments worthwhile if they did not want to buy them and roll back up with bigger footprint and presence in asset market.

 
"George_Banker" Healthcare deal where company would buy geographic assets from counterparty, counterparty would buy equity in client to fund further research and approval of assets with cash to client based on approval/development milestones and equity based milestones to client based on sales milestones; client wanted counterparty to fund portions of research if trails advanced and counterparty wanted to own more of client if that was the case, so would have option to buy equity at a predetermined price (negotiated premium to stock price). Also contemplated royalty payments to counterparty from client based on sales milestones. Very complicated on a probability weighted NPV value to bridge the gap between parties.

Rationale: counterparty wanted toehold in client, which specialized in non-core assets of counterparty and did not want to take the assets to market. Client wanted to have assets and did not have geographic presence. If deal went well, counterparty had stake that could fend off competition from buying and on a present value made the milestone and royalty payments worthwhile if they did not want to buy them and roll back up with bigger footprint and presence in asset market.

I was thinking of shooting for Investment Banking post MBA, but after reading this post I might need to re evaluate my career goals. I did not understand a word of that post.

 

not sure if this is purposely written to sound more pedantic or complicated than it really is, but this is a very standard licensing agreement, with ownership options, royalties, and clinical trial funding arrangements, dependent on regulatory and commercialization milestones.

Pfizer, Lilly, AZN, JNJ, etc ink these sorts of deals on a quarterly basis. That being said, creating market models across marketed geographies, across patient populations, etc, can be a pain modeling-wise.

 

Deal with 2 industry groups, 2 product groups - first of its kind technology / plant that required multiple tranches of debt and equity raises. At one point pivoted to an infrastructure type model that involved various royalty payments and triggers depending on pricing and volume and split the Company into 2 entities.

Def not as bad as George_Banker's though.

 

Mine wasn't complicated from a structuring standpoint, but our client's primary shareholder (~63%) died 2 days before the final agreement was to be signed. His 5 (yes, fucking 5) kids each got equal share of his ownership, and 2 of the fuckers talked the other 3 into trying to price gouge the counterparty.

Deal fell through. We dropped the relationship. Fun times all around.

 
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Random biotech company was failing and looking for a way to turn the business around. We lent them debt to finance purchase of bitcoin mining rigs and other bitcoin assets with deal in place to change the name of the Company to include blockchain in the ticker. With plan to refinance debt after name change and issuance of equity.

Original plan was simply to try and keep everyone’s jobs in place by facilitating an eventual equity raise. Plan was hugely successful and stock price sky rocketed 2,000% in 6 weeks. Ownership of company no longer wanted their jobs but tasked us with figuring out best way of liquidating their ownership in company.

They retired and tasked us with negotiating their yacht purchases since our prior Work was incredibly successful.

 

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