Douglas S. Horowitz is a Partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Mr. Horowitz is the Head of Leveraged and Acquisition Finance, Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Global Finance Practice Group, and an active member of the Capital Markets Practice Group and Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance Practice Group.
Mr. Horowitz represents leading private equity firms, public and private corporations, leading investment banking firms and commercial banks with a focus on financing transactions involving private credit, syndicated institutional and asset based loans, new issuance of secured and unsecured high-yield debt securities, equity and equity-linked securities, as well as out-of-court restructurings. He has been involved in the financings for a number of significant acquisitions, including the $67 billion purchase by Dell of EMC, the $19 billion purchase by Western Digital of SanDisk, Stone Point’s $8.2 billion buyout of CoreLogic and 40 North’s $7.4 billion buyout of W.R. Grace and several of the landmark acquisitions of the LBO boom, including hospital-operator HCA, SunGard Data Systems, VNU / Nielsen, ARAMARK, U.S. Foodservice, Biomet, Avaya and TXU Corp. He has also represented corporations, leading investment banks and financial advisors in connection with several IPOs, debt refinancings and comprehensive out-of-court debt restructurings.
Mr. Horowitz advises on the high-yield bond and bank sides of acquisition financings and refinancings as well as IPOs and other equity financings and has practiced in a variety of industries such as technology, media, telecommunications, industrials, healthcare, gaming, real estate, and natural resources.
Celebrated in Chambers as “encyclopedic,” “analytic,” “brilliant,” and “problem solver who thinks outside the box,” Mr. Horowitz has been recognized as a leading finance lawyer by Chambers USA, Chambers Global, The Legal 500 and Euromoney’s IFLR 1000: The Guide to the World’s Leading Financial Law Firms. He was recognized by Chambers USA in 2022 for his work in Capital Markets with Debt and Equity, as a Dealmaker of the Year in 2021 by New York Law Journal and was named as a 2020 MVP in Capital Markets by Law360. In 2015, Mr. Horowitz was named a rising star by New York Law Journal, and in 2010, he was recognized as one of Law360‘s ten “Rising Legal Stars under 40” in the area of corporate finance.
Selected Matters
- Representation of Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation, an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management L.P., and a private equity consortium in the bridge loans and subsequent $1.96 billion high yield bond offering in connection with the US$16 billion acquisition of Nielsen Holdings plc, a marketing services company providing demand analysis, product development, sales measurement and promotion strategies.
- Representation of Veritas Capital in the private credit loan financing for its acquisition of Sequa Corporation, parent company of Chromalloy, a global technology company and a leading solutions provider for aircraft engines and gas turbines.
- Representation of Veritas Capital in the private credit loan financing for its pending acquisition of certain businesses from Verisk.
- Representation of RedBird Capital in the private loan financing for its acquisition of AC Milan.
- Representation of Mauser Packaging (a Stone Canyon portfolio company) in connection with its $2.75 billion first lien high yield bond offering and contemporaneous offer to exchange previously issued unsecured bonds for up to $1.35 billion of new second lien high yield bonds.
- Representation of Primoris Services Corporation in connection with its $1.27 billion senior secured credit facilities, the proceeds of which were used to refinance existing debt and to finance the $470 million acquisition of PLH Group.
- Representation of the financial institutions in connection with senior secured credit facilities and preferred equity financing in support of Viagogo’s acquisition of StubHub.*
- Representation of the financial institutions in connection with various credit facilities in support of CDW’s acquisition of Sirius Computer.*
- Representation of the financial institutions in connection with the debut high yield bond offering for Papa John’s.*
- Representation of the financial institutions in connection with early COVID-era high yield financings for AMC Entertainment and SeaWorld.*
- Representation of the various underwriters for numerous investment grade debt securities offerings by technology companies like Dell Technologies, CDW and Western Digital.*
- Representation of the investment banks in connection with USD and Euro high yield bonds, credit facilities and common stock offerings for Catalent Pharmaceuticals.*
- Representation of several commercial banks in providing a $3.75 billion asset-based loan to HCA, Inc.*
- Representation of the underwriters in connection with Nielsen Holdings N.V., (NYSE: NLSN) approximately $1.9 billion initial public offering and subsequent $9.8 billion secondary offerings.
- Representation of the financial institutions in connection with arranging secured credit facilities and high yield debt securities for Churchill Downs.
- Representation of the investment banks in the landmark $6.6 billion high yield offering, $1.5 billion credit facility, $1.75 billion mandatory convertible preferred stock and $750 million of common stock for Frontier Communications in connection with its purchase of assets from Verizon. Also represented the financial institutions in connection with Frontier’s subsequent term loan and over $3 billion of secured bond issuances.*
- Representation of the financial institutions in providing secured credit facilities for the acquisition of IMG Worldwide by William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and subsequent nearly $3 billion refinancing.*
- Representation of several commercial banks in providing a multi-currency asset-based loan of $1 billion to Ryerson Inc.*
- Representation of various investment banks in connection with numerous securities offerings, term loans and reserve-based loans for “upstream” oil and gas companies like EP Energy, QEP and Hilcorp, logistics MLPs like Andeavor Logistics and PBF Logistics and refining companies like PBF Energy.*
Mr. Horowitz earned his Juris Doctor in 2001 from Cornell University Law School. He also earned his M.B.A. from Cornell University in 2001 and his B.A. from Columbia University in 1997.
*Representations occurred prior to Mr. Horowitz’s association with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.