Firm News
Katten Represents Hyde Park Acquisition Corp. in Acquisition of Essex Crane Rental Corp.
November 7, 2008
NEW YORK – Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is pleased to have served as legal counsel to Hyde Park Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in its recently completed $210 million acquisition of Essex Crane Rental Corp., a Chicago-based provider of heavy-lift crawler crane rental services. Essex supplies cranes for construction projects related to power generation, petro-chemical, refineries, water treatment and purification, bridges, highways, hospitals, shipbuilding, offshore oil fabrication and industrial plants, and commercial construction.
The Essex acquisition represents Katten’s third successfully completed acquisition for the highly structured public acquisition vehicles known as special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. Katten’s representation of the successor public company, Essex Rental Corp., has continued since completion of the acquisition.
Todd J. Emmerman, a corporate partner based in Katten’s New York office, managed the acquisition and securities law aspects of the deal, while New York-based commercial finance partner Janu Sivanesan led the debt-financing portion of the transaction. The team also included members of numerous other practices throughout the firm.
“We are pleased to have assisted Hyde Park in seeing this acquisition through to completion,” Mr. Emmerman said. “In an economic environment that has proven extremely challenging for M&A activity, we are proud to have played a role in the company’s success. Navigating a SPAC acquisition to completion during a time of unprecedented market turmoil reflects Katten’s experience and resourcefulness in representing SPACs during their business combination phase, as well as the firm’s value-added, problem-solving approach to addressing clients’ needs.”
Katten has a sophisticated Mergers and Acquisitions Practice that is responsive to clients and their objectives, is efficient and cost-effective and is dedicated to excellent client service. Katten attorneys represent public and private clients in a broad range of domestic and international acquisitions, sales, divestures, leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, going private transactions and joint ventures. Each year, the M&A Practice handles billions of dollars in business combinations, ranging from small, privately negotiated transactions to mergers of large, public companies. Representation of private equity firms and private equity-backed portfolio companies comprises a significant portion of the firm’s M&A Practice.