The firm represented a joint venture between Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. and The Blackstone Group's Real Estate Fund in the acquisition of Town & Country Homes, a land development and homebuilding company with operations in Illinois, Florida and Minnesota. The transaction closed on March 1, 2005 at an undisclosed price but has been described as the largest acquisition of a private homebuilder to date.
Simpson Thacher also represented the Hovnanian/Blackstone venture in connection with a term loan and revolving credit facility from Bank of America. The proceeds of the financing, together with equity from Blackstone and Hovnanian, were used to pay the merger consideration.
The Simpson Thacher lawyers who worked on this transaction were Scott Kobak, Erik Quarfordt, Alison Ando and Ari Stavsky (Real Estate), John Hart and Nancy Mehlman (Tax), James Buresh, Jennifer Hobbs and Jeff Goldfarb (Credit), Brian Robbins, Alvin Brown and Aimee Adler (Employee Benefits), Marni Lerner (M&A), Tim Mulvihill (Environmental), Robin Rahbar (Intellectual Property) and Julie Levy (Labor).