Kirkland & Ellis advised private equity firm KPS Capital Partners, LP on its deal to buy most of the assets of lawn mower giant Briggs & Stratton Corp. for about $550 million, the firm said.
Briggs & Stratton said it’s getting legal advice from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Foley & Lardner, and Carmody MacDonald P.C, for the deal and for its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization petition filed yesterday in federal bankruptcy court in St. Louis.
In its filing, the world’s biggest maker of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment cited debts topping $1 billion and a sales slump exacerbated by the economic crisis that grew out of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bloomberg News reported.
Briggs & Stratton said it has arranged $677.5 million of debtor-in-possession financing that will help fund operations during the court reorganization. KPS said it agreed to contribute $265 million of that amount.
The New York-based private equity firm, which promised to keep Briggs & Stratton in business, said it already negotiated a “tentative” new contract with the United Steelworkers of America.
KPS said it has more than $11.4 billion of assets under management, with portfolio companies that run 150 manufacturing facilities in 26 countries with about 23,000 employees.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rick Mitchell in Paris at rmitchell@correspondent.bloomberglaw.com
To contact the editor on this story:
Chris Opfer in New York at copfer@bloomberglaw.com
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