Edward Grais

Edward Grais is a Partner in Simpson Thacher’s Tax Practice. Based in the Firm’s New York office, he advises clients on tax matters in connection with their most complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, spin-offs, REIT and other real estate transactions, private fund formation and securities offerings. His experience spans transactions across many high-growth industries, including real estate, infrastructure, healthcare and life sciences, financial services and insurance. He advises both private equity sponsors and strategic clients, including Blackstone, KKR, Integrum, Rockpoint, Centerbridge Partners, Stone Point Capital, SiriusXM and GardaWorld.

Edward’s representative transactions have included:

• Blackstone in numerous real estate transactions, including the $10 billion take private of AIR Communities; the $4 billion take private of Retail Opportunity Investments; the $3.1 billion take private of WPT; the $2.3 billion take private of Alexander & Baldwin; the $1.64 billion sale of a student housing portfolio to KKR; the sale of Park Avenue Tower; acquisition of the Bellagio, MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay; and the $18.7 billion acquisition of the U.S. logistics business of Global Logistics Properties.
• Blackstone in multiple private equity transactions, including the acquisition of Copeland from Emerson; the acquisition of majority ownership of Jersey Mike’s; the acquisition of Cvent; and significant growth investments in Sphera and Liftoff from Neuberger Berman and General Atlantic, respectively.
• KKR in its acquisition and integration of Global Atlantic.
• Integrum in multiple transactions, including the formation of Integrum Capital Partners II, which raised of $2.5 billion, and Integrum’s partnerships with True, Stout, and Program Productions.
• Stone Point Capital in multiple transactions, including its acquisition of Truist Insurance from Truist Bank together with CD&R; its investment in OneDigital together with CPP Investments; and its investment with Ultimus Fund Solutions together with GTCR.
• Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP) in the formation of North Haven Infrastructure Partners III and North Haven Infrastructure Partners IV, which closed at $5.5 billion and $4.1 billion, respectively, and MSIP’s strategic investment in Torch Clean Energy.
• Cvent in its acquisitions of Prismm, Splash and Reposite.
• GardaWorld in its recapitalization transaction valued at C$13.5 billion and in the acquisitions of Stealth Monitoring and OnSolve.
• CRC Group (formerly Truist Insurance) in multiple transactions, including the sales of its Crump Life Insurance Services business and Hanleigh Management to AmeriLife Group and sale of McGriff Insurance Services Business to an affiliate of Marsh & McLennan Companies.
• Centerbridge in its $868 million acquisition of INDUS Realty Trust, Inc. together with GIC and Centerbridge’s joint venture with Reframe Holdings to acquire more than $500 million in self-storage assets across the U.S.
• EQT in its $8.5 billion acquisition of Parexel with Goldman Sachs Asset Management and acquisition of Cypress Creek Renewables.
• SiriusXM in its split-off from Liberty Media Corporation.
• Change Healthcare in its separation from McKesson, acquisition of eRx and sale to UnitedHealth Group.
• BellRing Brands in its separation from Post Holdings.
• Teleflex in the $2.03 billion sale of its Acute Care and Interventional Urology businesses.
• Numerous issuers and initial purchasers in the issuance of convertible notes and related hedging transactions.

Edward received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2018, magna cum laude, where he won the Sidney I. Roberts Prize for best paper on Taxation. He received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012, with Highest Distinction, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.