DETROIT, April 7, 2009 – Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP (Honigman) is pleased to announce that a cross-disciplinary team of its attorneys represented Tempo Group, Inc. in negotiating the principal terms and conditions of the $100 million acquisition of the remaining pieces of Delphi’s global brake and suspension component business. BeijingWest Industries Co., Ltd., the buyer, is a new joint venture based in Beijing, China that is owned by Capital Iron & Steel Company of China, the Tempo Group, Inc. and a state-owned investment company of Beijing. W.Y. Campbell & Company, one of the nation’s leading specialty investment banking firms, has called this deal the “most high-profile acquisition yet by the Chinese in the American auto industry.”
“This was an extremely complicated deal, involving multiple manufacturing plants and technical facilities located in ten countries and some very complex legal agreements,” said a member of Tempo Group, Inc. “The support from the Honigman legal team was incredible. They not only provided us with excellent service but also managed to move the transaction from due diligence to signing the purchase agreement in a very compressed time frame.”
The transaction involved the hiring of approximately 3,000 employees and the acquisition of machinery and equipment; intellectual property; and real property interests related to five manufacturing facilities and sixteen technical centers located in ten countries.
In addition to negotiating the master sale and purchase agreement, Honigman Partners Phillip D. Torrence (from the firm’s Kalamazoo office), Frederick J. Frank (Detroit), Barbara A. Kaye (Ann Arbor) and Ronald E. Whitney (Detroit) negotiated the relevant terms and conditions for manufacturing services agreements in selected jurisdictions; leases from Delphi for periods subsequent to closing; a transition services agreement; and other ancillary agreements. The transaction documents were negotiated under a very compressed timeframe in light of Delphi’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Honigman’s attorneys coordinated with a network of foreign counsel in each of the jurisdictions in which the business is conducted, principally China, India, Mexico, Poland, France and the United States. Honigman’s team consisted of a variety of disciplines, including intellectual property, real estate, environmental and employee benefits and labor.
About Honigman
Celebrating its 60th year, Honigman is a leading Michigan-based business law firm with an international practice. Headquartered in Detroit with offices in Lansing, Oakland County, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, the firm has attorneys practicing in 40 different areas of concentration. Honigman’s highly-credentialed attorneys and staff, along with its customer-service focus, provide clients in a wide variety of industries timely and cost-effective counsel.
In 2008, Honigman was named the No. 1 corporate law firm in Detroit for the third consecutive year by Corporate Board Member magazine and received a No. 1 ranking within the state of Michigan from Chambers USA in four key practice areas. Honigman received recognition for 62 of the firm’s attorneys in the 2008 edition of Michigan Super Lawyers, leading for the second year in a row with more attorneys in the “Top 100” than any other law firm in the state of Michigan. The publication also recognized 27 of the firm’s attorneys under the age of 40 as Rising Stars. Honigman was named in 2008 as one of the “50 Best Law Firms for Women” by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers, LLC. www.honigman.com.
