In a deal creating the largest industrial staffing company in North America, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented The Select Family of Staffing Companies in its merger with EmployBridge, which closed in February 2015. The combined company continues to operate the businesses under their existing brand names.
Milbank provided comprehensive counsel for the transaction, with lawyers from the firm’s corporate, antitrust, tax, employment, executive compensation/benefits, litigation, and environmental groups advising Select Staffing.
Select Staffing and EmployBridge have a combined annual revenue of approximately
$3 billion, with a portfolio of specialized staffing solutions geared for industries such as manufacturing, logistics, and transportation; together, they serve nearly 20,000 customers with more than 490 branch and on-site locations in the U.S. and Canada. The new company is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, with operations centers in Santa Barbara, CA; Irving, TX; and other locations.
Select Staffing, founded in Santa Barbara in 1985, is majority owned by affiliates of Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. and BlueMountain Capital Management, LLC. It offers workforce management services including recruiting and screening professional job candidates, payroll and time attendance management, on-site supervision, and specialty staffing solutions to a wide variety of clients. EmployBridge Holding Company, headquartered in Atlanta, provides specialty staffing services with 254 branches/on-sites in 41 states, offering skilled light industrial personnel to three specific industries: specialty manufacturing, warehousing/logistics, and transportation. Morgan Stanley Global Private Equity and Constitution Capital, majority owners of EmployBridge since May 2011, exited their stakes in EmployBridge upon closing of the deal. Milbank’s deal team included the following attorneys in the firm’s Los Angeles and New York offices:
- Corporate: Brett Goldblatt (partner); Kim Shah, Peter Wang, and Mark Vible (associates)
- HSR and Antitrust: Fiona Schaeffer (partner
- Tax: Leah Karlov and Russell Kestenbaum (partners)
- Alternative Investments: Albert Pisa (partner); John Britton (special counsel);
Kelsey Breck (associate) - Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits: Joel Krasnow (partner),
James Beebe (associate) - Employment: Jane Hanson (of counsel)
- Litigation: Aluyah Imoisili (associate)
- Environmental: Matthew Aherns (partner)
In late 2013 and early 2014, Milbank represented the steering committee of former first and second lien lenders of Select Staffing in a restructuring valued at over $600 million, which closed in May 2014. “We’re excited to begin the new year with this transaction on behalf of Select Staffing, a great showcase for the breadth of our M&A team across so many key practice areas in addition to our corporate group,” said Mr. Goldblatt. “The deal creates the country’s preeminent industrial staffing company, taking advantage of significant changes in the American employment landscape, which is trending toward a more flexible and cyclical workforce. We hope to continue working with the newly combined company in supporting its future growth plans.” About Milbank Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy is a leading international law firm that has been providing innovative legal solutions to clients throughout the world for nearly 150 years. Milbank is headquartered in New York and has offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, DC. The firm’s lawyers provide a full range of legal services to the world’s leading commercial, financial and industrial enterprises, as well as to institutions, individuals and governments. Milbank’s lawyers meet the needs of its clients by offering a highly integrated and collaborative range of services across key practice groups throughout its global network. Milbank’s integrated practice is underpinned by its attorneys’ acknowledged technical excellence, sectorial experience and a strong tradition of innovation and client service.
