July 9, 2021
Willkie represented Sphera and Genstar in the transaction.
On July 6, it was announced that Genstar Capital entered into a definitive agreement to sell Sphera, a leading provider of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) software, data, and consulting services to private equity funds managed by Blackstone (NYSE:BX). Blackstone’s investment values the company at approximately $1.4 billion, and would be made through its flagship private equity vehicle.
Through SaaS software, proprietary data and consulting services, Sphera’s experts work with organizations around the world to help them surface, manage, and mitigate ESG risk in the areas of Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability, Operational Risk Management and Product Stewardship. The company has more than 3,000 customers in more than 100 countries.
Based in San Francisco, Genstar Capital is a leading private equity firm that has been actively investing in high quality companies for over 30 years. Together with Genstar X and all active funds, Genstar currently has approximately $33 billion of assets under management and targets investments focused on targeted segments of the financial services, healthcare, industrials, and software industries.
Blackstone is a leading investment firm with investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis.
The Willkie team was led by partners Jeffrey Poss and Manuel Miranda, and included associate Thomas Sharkey.
