Wyche has many experienced lawyers whose practice concentrations include securities transactions and corporate finance. We have represented both public and private companies for four decades in securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, public company periodic reporting, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and corporate finance.
We have an uncommonly deep and experienced bench of securities attorneys for a small law firm, which makes us a local firm with a national-caliber practice. Indeed, opposing counsel on our securities transactions are typically the New York, Atlanta, Washington, DC, or other major offices of national law firms. Seven of our members who handle securities transactions have ten or more years of experience.
Though we regularly handle a wide variety of complex securities transactions, we are involved with most of our securities clients’ day-to-day corporate issues. This makes us intimately familiar with the business goals and challenges of a wide variety of businesses and gives us insight into the business needs driving strategic transactions.
Public Companies
We have represented many of the public companies headquartered in South Carolina in a variety of complex securities transactions including:
- Sale by merger of publicly traded restaurant group to privately held restaurant group (approx. $834 million including debt paid at closing)
- Acquisition of publicly traded textile company by privately held textile company (approx. $150 million of common stock registered on Form S-4)
- Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation by publicly traded textile company for $31 million of Senior Notes
- Sale of control of publicly traded textile company by one private equity group to another private equity group for $51 million (represented publicly traded company)
- Public company offering of $250 million of Floating Rate Senior Notes in a take-down from a universal shelf registration statement
- Public company offering of $400 million of Senior Notes (Rule 144A private placement followed by registered exchange offer)
- Public company $750 million universal shelf registration statement
- Public financial services holding company $750 million universal shelf registration statement
- Offering of 5,500,000 shares of common stock of publicly-traded financial services holding company for approximately $148.5 million from universal shelf registration
In addition to these public company securities transactions, we have represented public companies in spin-offs, proxy contests, rights plans (or “poison pills”), challenges to rights plans, equity compensation plans, extraordinary dividends, Dutch tender offers, and other securities-related transactions. In addition, we have represented publicly traded companies as borrowers in the negotiation of a variety of bank credit facilities.
Private Companies
We also represent both start-ups and mature private companies in capital raising, debt financing and other strategic transactions. We regularly represent start-up companies in raising angel and venture capital. Recently we represented founders of a well-established private company in a leveraged recapitalization with two private equity groups, and we have represented a private company in its growth through a succession of mergers-of-equals.
Eric B. Amstutz
Lead Contact
Eric Amstutz concentrates his practice in advising businesses; the negotiation, drafting and analysis of complex agreements, including business mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and spin-offs; corporate and board governance issues; insolvency-related matters; equity and debt securities offerings; government-private sector transactions; and business practice assistance in litigation.