Fran S. Gray

FRAN GRAY advises on private equity transactions and private corporate M&A transactions across a range of sectors, including retail, real estate, industrials, energy, and infrastructure.

Fran completed a secondment to a U.S. private equity fund, where she focused on European private equity transactions.

Prior to joining Sidley, Fran worked in the private equity practice of another international law firm.

Fran’s representative experience includes advising:

• Funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc. in the acquisition of a majority stake in Prosol Group, a multi-specialist in fresh food businesses and food retail in France.
• Clara Vista Partners and Portman Holdings LLC in its majority investment in UK-based Ipswich Town Football Club.
• Ryan Specialty in its US$525 million acquisition of Velocity Risk.
• Eldridge Industries, a leading investment firm and partner in Fulwell 73, in its merger with The SpringHill Company.
• Ryan Specialty in its acquisition of Innovisk.
• Kuvare Holdings in the sale for up to US$1 billion of Kuvare Asset Management to Blue Owl Capital (including potential earnout), and US$250 million preferred equity investment by Blue Owl in Kuvare.
• Gradiant, a Boston-headquartered water company, on a number of acquisitions in the Middle East.
• A U.S. private equity sponsor on its €3.17 billion carve-out acquisition of a global construction chemicals business from a German public company.
• A U.S. private equity sponsor and its portfolio company on the bolt-on acquisition of a leading clay roof tile business in Portugal.
• A U.S. private equity sponsor on the acquisition of a portfolio of non-performing loans in Europe.
• A UK private equity fund on its investment in SEM Energy, a provider of zero-waste and waste-to-product industrial and energy applications headquartered in the UK.
• A U.S. private equity fund in the formation of a new independent power producer, Onyx Strategic Investment Management I BV, and the acquisition of a fleet of coal- and biomass-fired power stations.
• A UK private equity fund on its investment in Well-SENSE Technology Limited, a services business using fiber optics technology to capture distributed temperature and acoustic measurements data.
• A U.S. private equity sponsor on its 100% equity sale valued at approximately US$151.3 million of certain oil and gas royalty assets to a U.S. based company.
• A U.S. private equity sponsor on the acquisition of a plywood manufacturing business in Spain.

Some of the above matters were handled prior to joining Sidley.