Sidley Represents Carlyle and KKR in Its Agreement to Acquire a US$10.1 Billion Portfolio of Prime Private Student Loans From Discover

Sidley represented Carlyle and KKR in entering into an agreement, through one or more strategic partnerships comprised of funds and accounts managed by Carlyle and KKR’s respective credit businesses, to purchase a portfolio of prime private student loans from Discover Bank with a principal balance of approximately US$10.1 billion. Firstmark Services, a subsidiary of Nelnet, Inc., will service the loans in the portfolio, and Monogram LLC will serve as the portfolio manager for the portfolio. Carlyle and KKR agreed to finance the acquisition with a warehouse financing from certain bank lenders, insurance companies, and other institutional investors, each provided on a committed basis.

The cross-disciplinary team was led by T.J. Gordon and Megan H. Roberts (Global Finance) and Ryan Scofield and Courtney Gilberg (PE/M&A). The Sidley team included Banks Bruce, Alejandro Ruiz, Kaylee Bean, Max Lupin, and Madeline Moore (Global Finance); Jon Litsey and John E. Walker (PE/M&A); Sean A. Smith, Rachpal Thind, Tom Hunter, and Kerry Nilsen (Financial Institutions – Banking and Financial Services); Richard M. Silverman and Mitchell Li (Tax); Azad Assadipour and Alice Sarvi (Derivatives); Thomas D. Cunningham and Sasha Hondagneu-Messner (Privacy and Cybersecurity); Lawrence Silverman (Antitrust); Carla Teodoro (Investment Funds); and Beth Dickstein (ERISA).