Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has advised Michigan-based auto-parts maker Key Safety Systems (KSS) on its $1.59 billion acquisition of nearly all of Japanese airbag maker Takata Corp’s assets. Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, Weil Gotshal & Manges, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer counselled the seller.
A consortium led by KSS’s Chinese parent company, Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp, which Skadden also advised, provided part of the funding. The deal was also funded by private equity firm PAG, which turned to Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison for advice, and Future Industry Investment Fund.
The acquisition deal does not include Takata’s liabilities from the recall of its ammonium nitrate airbag inflators. Takata and its U.S. unit, TK Holdings Inc, filed for bankruptcy last year in the wake of the world’s largest automotive safety recall, triggered by airbag inflators that could explode with excessive force, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks, which has been linked to at least 22 deaths and hundreds of injuries worldwide.
Takata’s assets will be merged into KSS and the combined entity will be called Joyson Safety Systems, based in Michigan, with Ningbo Joyson holding a majority stake.
After more than a decade of recalls, lawsuits and a criminal investigation which drove Takata to bankruptcy, the deal ensures the Japanese company will be able to continue producing replacement inflators before winding itself down, which may take years, reported Reuters.
The Skadden team was led by partners Ron Meisler and Steven Daniels. Partners Marcia Goldstein and Ronit Berkovich acted on the deal for Weil, while partners Jochen Ellrott and Lars Westpfahl represented Freshfields. The Paul Weiss team was led by partner Jeanette Chan.
