Sean Skiffington

Sean Skiffington

Partner

Email

sean.skiffington@aoshearman.com

Phone

+1 416 360 2976

+1 212 848 4038

Offices

New York

Toronto

V-CARD
Sean has extensive experience representing clients in all aspects of public and private company transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, consortium investments, minority investments and joint ventures, particularly Canada/U.S. cross-border transactions, involving a broad range of sectors, including the infrastructure, energy, aerospace and defense, metals and mining and insurance sectors, and regularly represents sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and private equity sponsors. Sean also advises clients on corporate and securities law issues, including securities law compliance and general corporate advisory work.

Experience

Representative matters

  • Mubadala in the expansion of its global partnership with Apollo to support the Apollo Capital Solutions business, its joint venture with Alpha Dhabi to co-invest in global credit opportunities, and in various other investments and transactions, including the acquisition by Mubadala Capital, the wholly owned asset management subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, of Canada Cartage from Nautic Partners and the acquisition, together with Fortress management, of Fortress Investment Group from SoftBank Group Corp.
  • Stelco in its $2.5 billion acquisition by Cleveland-Cliffs.
  • Meridiam in connection with its tender offer for NYSE-listed Allego N.V. shares it did not already own.
  • Raytheon in its $120 billion combination with United Technologies Corporation through a merger of equals, in its $275 million divestiture of its military airborne radio business to BAE Systems and in its sale of Raytheon Anschütz Group to DMB Dr. Dieter Murmann Beteiligungsgesellschaft.
  • The management team of Galway Insurance Holdings, the holding company for EPIC Brokers & Consultants, in its sale to Harvest Partners, and EPIC and its affiliates in numerous acquisitions, including the acquisitions of New Energy Risk and Reel Media, LLC by Paragon Insurance Holdings, the acquisition of Halpern Financial by MAI Capital Management and the acquisitions of The Fairly Group, Treloar & Heisel, Dixon Wells, Sitzmann, Morris & Lavis Insurance and TDC Life by EPIC.
  • Fairfax Financial Holdings in its $1.4 billion sale of its pet insurance business to JAB Holding Co., its $4.9 billion cash and stock acquisition of NYSE-listed Allied World Assurance Company, its proposal to acquire and subsequent investments in BlackBerry Limited, its acquisition of pet insurance provider Hartville Group, Inc. and various other investments.
  • Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in connection with various matters, including its $6.1 billion acquisition of NASDAQ-listed Pattern Energy Group, its acquisition, together with Energy Capital Partners and Access Industries, of NYSE-listed Calpine Corporation, the purchase of a $335 million issuance by Global Cash Access, Inc. of 7.25% Senior Secured Notes due April 15, 2021, the $1.6 billion sale of portfolio company Air Distribution Technologies, Inc. to Johnson Controls, Inc. and various other transactions.
  • PSA International in its acquisition of BDP International, Inc., from private equity firm Greenbriar Equity Group.
  • Magris Resources in its $223 million acquisition of Imerys Talc America, Inc.
  • TELUS International in its $1.225 billion acquisition of WillowTree and in its $935 million acquisition of Lionbridge AI, a global provider of crowd-based data annotation services.
  • General Electric in its $32 billion merger of GE’s Oil and Gas business with Baker Hughes Incorporated, its $3.25 billion sale of its distributed power business to Advent International, its $630 million sale of MRA Systems to ST Engineering, its $2.5 billion disposition of a portfolio of U.S., Canadian, Mexican and Brazilian aircraft leases and related aircraft and aircraft loans to Global Jet Capital, Inc., its $4.3 billion acquisition of the aviation business of Avio S.p.A., the sale of its legacy avionics business to Ontic and various other acquisitions, dispositions and investments.
  • Various sovereign wealth and pension fund clients in numerous infrastructure investments, including in the Chicago Metered Parking System; Gatwick Airport; one of the largest interstate gas pipeline systems in the United States; an integrated gas transportation grid and processing facilities in Northern Europe; and Germany’s largest gas transmission system.
  • Textron Inc. in its $810 million sale of its tools and test equipment business to Emerson Electric, its $1.4 billion acquisition of Beech Holdings, LLC and its $247 million acquisition of Arctic Cat Inc. via tender offer.
  • Corning Incorporated in its $900 million acquisition of 3M Company’s global fibre and copper connectivity solutions business.
  • Temasek Holdings in its acquisition of Virtu Financial, Inc. publicly traded stock in connection with Virtu’s acquisition of KCG Holdings, Inc. and, as a member of a consortium, in its $433 million acquisition of Brookstone, Inc.
  • Lehigh Hanson in the sale of its 51% partnership interest in Lehigh White Cement Company to Aalborg Cement Company and Cemex and in its $660 million sale of a West Virginia cement plant and eight related terminals to Cementos Argos.
  • Investcorp S.A. in its €1 billion sale of Icopal a/s to GAF, North America’s largest roofing manufacturer.
  • B/E Aerospace in its tax-free spin-off of its consumables business, KLX Inc., to shareholders; its €200 million acquisition of Interturbine Projekt Management; its $400 million acquisition of UFC Aerospace Corp.; its $162 million acquisition of the OEM distribution business of Satair A/S and various other acquisitions.
  • Inmet Mining Corporation in its unsolicited offer for Petaquilla Minerals Ltd.
  • Lafarge S.A. in the $700 million sale of its North American Gypsum Business to an affiliate of Lone Star Funds and in the $300 million sale of its Maryland Aggregates Business to Bluegrass Materials, an affiliate of Lindsay Goldberg III, LP.
  • Kimberly-Clark Corporation in its $161 million acquisition of a 49.9% interest in Hogla-Kimberly Ltd. from Hadera Paper.
  • IceArizona Acquisition Co., LLC, an entity through which a consortium of Canadian and U.S. investors completed a leveraged acquisition of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey club from the National Hockey League.
  • Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc in its $98.7 billion consortium acquisition of ABN AMRO.
  • Cadbury plc in its $19.4 billion recommended acquisition by Kraft Foods.
  • New England Sports Ventures in its £300 million acquisition of The Liverpool Football Club.
  • Norsk Hydro ASA in the $30 billion merger of its oil and gas business with Statoil ASA and its minority investment in Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc.
  • Corus Group plc in the £6.7 billion recommended cash acquisition by Tata Steel U.K. Limited.
  • Rio Tinto in its $1.5 billion investment in Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.
  • Ispat International N.V. and a special committee of its board of directors in Ispat’s $19.95 billion share acquisition of LNM Holdings N.V. to form Mittal Steel Company N.V.
  • ArcelorMittal in its $1.44 billion acquisition of Mexican steel producer Siderúrgica Lázaro Cárdenas las Truchas, S.A. de C.V. and U.S. steel mill Border Steel from Grupo Villacero S.A. de C.V.
  • AngloGold Ashanti in its $568 million acquisition with Randgold Resources of Moto Goldmines and in its $124 million acquisition of Golden Cycle Gold Corporation.
  • Mubadala Development Company and The Olayan Group in connection with the €1.38 billion disposition of their interests in LeasePlan N.V. to Volkswagen AG.
  • ARAMARK Corporation in its $8.3 billion leveraged buyout by a private equity consortium including ARAMARK CEO Joseph Neubauer.

Pro bono

  • Sean has been co-chair of Shearman’s Pro Bono Committee since 2023.

Published Work

  • Author, “Changes coming for the U.K. Takeover Code,” The M&A Lawyer, April 2011, Volume 15, Issue 4
  • Author (with Laurence Levy), “Beating the odds: Xchanging’s successful takeover of Cambridge Solutions was complicated by the interplay between Indian takeover laws and UK market practice,” India Business Law Journal, June 2009

Awards

  • Top 40 to watch in the Next Generation of M&A dealmakers, Mergermarket, 2009

Qualifications

Admissions

Attorney-at-law, New York, U.S., 2004

Solicitor, England & Wales, 2009

Academic

B.Sc. (with great distinction), Biochemistry, McGill University, 1999
LL.B., Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, 2003
M.B.A. (Dean’s Honour List), Schulich School of Business of York University, 2003
Disclaimer
A&O Shearman was formed on May 1, 2024 by the combination of Shearman & Sterling LLP and Allen & Overy LLP and their respective affiliates (the legacy firms). Any matters referred to above may include matters undertaken by one or more of the legacy firms rather than A&O Shearman.