ProfessionalsSohail Itani
Tel: +1-212-373-3582
Fax: +1-212-492-0582
sitani@paulweiss.com
1285 Avenue of the Americas
New York,
NY
10019-6064
Fax: +1-212-492-0582
A partner in the Tax Department, Sohail advises clients on a variety of tax matters in connection with domestic and international transactions across multiple industries. Sohail provides tax counsel to investment funds and their portfolio companies, as well as strategic clients, in the structuring and negotiation of taxable and tax-free mergers & acquisitions (both public and private deals), spin-offs, divestitures, partnerships and joint ventures, debt restructurings, preferred equity investments and financing transactions. Additionally, Sohail advises asset managers on tax and structuring matters relating to the formation and operation of investment funds (including private equity and credit funds), as well as family offices in connection with the structuring and acquisition of their investments. Sohail also has extensive experience in tax matters related to the formation of SPACs and SPAC business combinations. Sohail is recognized as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers and a “500 X – The Next Generation” lawyer by Lawdragon.
EXPERIENCE
Sohail’s recent transactions include representing:
- Apollo Global Management and affiliated funds in numerous high-profile transactions, including in:
- its $6.3 billion acquisition of International Game Technology’s gaming and digital business IGT Gaming and Everi Holdings
- an investment of $11 billion to acquire from Intel Corporation a 49% equity interest in a joint venture entity related to Intel’s Fab 34
- their ¥311 billion investment (approximately $2.05 billion) to acquire a majority stake in Panasonic Automotive Systems Co.
- the $6.25 billion acquisition of The Venetian Resort and Sands Expo and Convention Center from Las Vegas Sands Corporation
- the take-private acquisition of Atlas Air Worldwide, for an enterprise value of $5.2 billion
- the $5.2 billion take-private acquisition of Arconic Corporation
- the $7.5 billion acquisition of the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) business of Lumen Technologies in 20 U.S. states to create Brightspeed, the nation's fifth largest ILEC
- the $2.4 billion sale of the safety business of Intrado, an Apollo portfolio company, to Stonepeak
- the $4.5 billion sale of its portfolio company McGraw-Hill to Platinum Equity
- the structuring and formation of various private equity and credit funds, including Hybrid Value, Accord and Defined Return
- various corporate finance transactions and debt workouts / restructurings for Apollo portfolio companies, including Shutterfly, Coinstar and Invited (formerly ClubCorp)
- IBM in its:
- strategic partnership with Palo Alto Networks
- pending $6.4 billion acquisition of HashiCorp
- $4.6 billion acquisition of Apptio
- acquisition of NS1
- acquisition of Neudesic
- sale of The Weather Company to Francisco Partners
- $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, creating the world’s largest hybrid cloud provider
- AR Global in connection with the internalization of management as part of the merger agreement between Global Net Lease and The Necessity Retail REIT
- Berkshire Partners in its:
- investment in Mielle Organics and subsequent sale of the company to P&G Beauty
- acquisition of a majority stake in Harvey Performance Company from Summit Partners
- Nuance Communications:
- in the spin-off of its Automotive software business to form Cerence
- in its $19.7 billion sale to Microsoft
- Baker Hughes in the formation of its global offshore drilling joint venture with Akastor
- Advance in the $150 billion Reverse Morris Trust transaction that combined AT&T’s WarnerMedia business with Discovery
- Global Infrastructure Partners in its $15 billion acquisition (together with KKR) of CyrusOne
- An ad hoc group of lenders to Exide Technologies, in a credit bid asset sale of the company’s international operations in more than 80 countries as part of the company’s chapter 11 liquidation
- Several SPAC representations including:
- Algoma Steel, Inc. in its combination with Legato Merger Corp.
- D-Dave in its combination with DPCM Capital
- SVF Investment Corp. 3 (a SoftBank SPAC) in its merger with Symbotic to form a publicly traded company with a pro-forma equity value of $5.5 billion