BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) entered into an agreement to acquire Global Infrastructure Management, LLC for $12.5 billion on January 12, 2024. As per the consideration, BlackRock will pay $3 billion of cash and approximately 12 million shares of BlackRock common stock. Approximately 7 million shares delivered at closing and approximately 5 million shares paid in ~5 years based on achievement of certain performance milestones. BlackRock intends to fund the cash consideration through $3 billion of additional debt. The GIP management team, led by Bayo Ogunlesi and four of its founding partners, will lead the combined infrastructure platform. BlackRock has also agreed to appoint Bayo Ogunlesi, GIP Founding Partner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, to the Board at the next regularly scheduled board meeting following the closing of the transaction.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024. Perella Weinberg Partners acted as financial advisor and Jonathan S. Adler, Lawrence N. Barshay, Gregg Beechey, Kate Downey, Rodney H. Hill, Harry R. Kaplan, Jons Lehmann, Dorothy Mehta, David S. Mitchell, Lawrence Natke, Russel G Perkins, Andrea L. Pollak, David I. Shapiro, Michael L. Sherman, Adam D. Summers, Sam Wilson and Ariel Zell of Fried Frank acted as legal counsels to BlackRock. Evercore acted as financial advisor and Melissa Kalka, Rohit Chaudhry, Kelann Stirling, Andy Calder, Allan Kirk, Patrick Moneypenny, Randy Santa Ana, Jennifer Gasser, Pat Corrigan, Sebastian Chan, Julian Seiguer, David Wheat, Steve Butler and Joseph Tootle of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Alisa Waxman, Peter Schuur, Jonathan Adler, Stephen Jordan and Daniel Priest of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP acted as legal counsels to GIP. The deal is expected to be modestly accretive to BlackRock?s as-adjusted earnings per share and operating margin in the first full year post-close. Zia Mody, Ashwath Rau, Atreya Bhattacharya, Rushabh Maniar, Anuja Tiwari, Mallika Anand and Bharat Budholia of AZB & Partners acted as legal advisor to BlackRock. Stavroula Vryna, Dimitri Slobodenjuk, Georgios Yannouchos, Alistair Woodland, Alistair Woodland, Andrew Patterson, Amy Bird, Sahel Mughal, Jack Hardman, Jurgen van der Meer and Robert Smits of Clifford Chance acted as legal advisor to BlackRock. PricewaterhouseCoopers acted as accountant for BlackRock.