Ares Management and Oaktree Capital Complete Preferred Equity Investment in Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives

Deploying two separate teams, Paul, Weiss advised funds managed by Ares Management Corporation and Oaktree Capital Management LP in their respective purchases of an aggregate of $180 million of a new series of preferred stock of Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives, Inc. IEA, a leading infrastructure construction company with specialized energy and heavy civil expertise and a focus on renewable energy projects, is a successor to a business acquired by Oaktree in 2011, which was subsequently acquired and merged into a special purpose acquisition company in March 2018.

IEA formed a special committee for the purpose of evaluating the transactions. The preferred stock investment was consummated in three separate tranches. As part of the preferred investment, Oaktree exchanged 50 percent of its existing preferred investment into shares of the new series of preferred stock and associated warrants.

The cash proceeds from the preferred investment were used, among other things, to pay down a portion of IEA’s term loan, repay outstanding borrowings under its revolving credit facility and provide cash to support letters of credit and bonding obligations as part of a deleveraging of its balance sheet. Following consummation of the transactions, Ares and Oaktree each have the right to appoint two directors to IEA’s board.

The Paul, Weiss Ares team included, among others, corporate partners Kenneth Schneider and Thomas de la Bastide and counsel Chaim Theil and David Epstein; antitrust counsel Marta Kelly; and tax partner Lindsay Parks.

The Paul, Weiss Oaktree team included corporate partners Ellen Ching and Raphael Russo; tax partner Patrick Karsnitz; and litigation partner Andrew Ehrlich.