Kirkland & Ellis Represents Bain Capital in Acquisition of SigmaKalon

Kirkland & Ellis has represented Bain Capital in its purchase of SigmaKalon, the paint business of French energy company TotalFinaElf, in a deal valued at nearly one billion dollars. 

Attorneys in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis were lead counsel to Bain Capital in the deal, the third major transaction the firm has handled for Bain in the last three months.  James Learner led the K&E team, as he did in Bain's December acquisitions of Trespaphan, a division of Celanese AG of Germany,  and the intermediate chemicals business of Rhodia, a Paris-based chemical manufacturer.

SigmaKalon is one of the ten biggest coating manufacturers in the world with $1.72 billion in sales in 2001.  The company employs 10,000 people in 30 countries around the world.  In addition to decorative coatings, the company manufactures marine, anticorrosion and other industrial compounds.  

Kirkland & Ellis partners Matthew Hurlock, Bronwen Jones, Jeffrey Sheffield, Erik Dahl and Thomas Verhoeven were also involved in the transaction.  Ashurst Morris Crisp was co-counsel to Bain Capital in the transaction.

Kirkland & Ellis is a 900-attorney law firm representing global clients in complex corporate and tax, workout, insolvency and bankruptcy, litigation, dispute resolution and arbitration, and intellectual property and technology matters.  The Firm has offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, San Francisco and Washington.