Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has been tapped to advise Discover Financial Services in its intricate $10.8 billion transaction involving the sale of a $10.1 billion private student loan portfolio. The strategic transfer, slated to conclude by the end of 2024, will see the portfolio passed to a consortium of partnerships managed by prominent investment firms Carlyle and KKR.
Firstmark Services, a Nelnet division, is set to manage the loans once the sale is finalized. Skadden’s team is spearheaded by M&A partners Jeffrey Brill and June Dipchand from the firm’s New York and Toronto offices. Key collaborators on the deal include banking partner David Passes and tax partner Alec Jarvis, alongside Washington D.C.-based partners Anand Raman, Mark Chorazak, and David Wales, covering consumer financial services, financial institutions regulation, and antitrust/competition respectively.
This is not Brill’s first foray into high-stakes student loan transactions. He previously led Skadden’s team advising Wells Fargo on its 2020 sale of a $10 billion student loan portfolio to investors including Apollo Global Management Inc. and Blackrock Group Inc.
Sidley Austin represented Carlyle and KKR in the acquisition, under the guidance of global finance partners T.J. Gordon and Megan Roberts. M&A and private equity partners Ryan Schofield and Courtney Gilberg also played crucial roles. Carlyle was further supported by Paul Hastings attorneys led by partner Shawn Kodes, while KKR worked with Clifford Chance, involving partners Robert Villani, Neil Barlow, Alistair Dunlop, Darren Littlejohn, and Jim Gouwar.
For more detailed insights into this transaction, you can read the full coverage here.