Andrea Merediz Basham

About Andrea Merediz Basham

Andrea is a Partner in Freshfields’ Corporate and M&A practice and is the recruiting Chair for the firm’s US offices. Andrea advises domestic and international corporates, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and other market participants on M&A, joint ventures and structured debt and equity investments. She also advises on corporate governance, disclosure and securities law matters for public companies and for investors in public and private companies. Andrea has been recognized as a “Top Woman in Dealmaking” by The Deal, and shortlisted for “Lawyer of the Year” by Woman in Business Law and is listed among leading lawyers for M&A and capital markets by IFLR1000 and Lawdragon. Andrea received a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2002.

Recent work

Select Public and Private M&A Transactional Advice

• FEMSA on the sale of its refrigeration and foodservice equipment operations to Mill Point Capital Partners.
• Plenty on its $680m joint venture with Mawarid.
• ABB on its pending acquisition of the SEAM Group.
• Li-Cycle on its:
  • pending follow-on $75 million senior secured convertible note placement to Glencore.
  • adoption of a limited duration shareholder rights plan.
  • $1.6 billion business combination with SPAC Peridot Acquisition Corp., including a $315 million concurrent PIPE investment.
  • $200 million convertible notes issuance to Glencore Ltd. 
  • announced issuance of a $200 million convertible notes issuance to Glencore Ltd. 
  • $100 million convertible notes issuance to Koch.
  • $50 million PIPE investment by LG.
  • Series C financing.
• Google on its:
  • $1 billion PIPE investment in CME.
  • $4.5 billion transaction with Jio Platforms, including investment and governance arrangements, and commercial agreements to develop an affordable smartphone with an optimized operating system.
• Stanley Black & Decker on numerous matters, including:
  • the $3.2 billion sale of its electronic security solutions and healthcare solutions businesses to Securitas.
  • as a stockholder of Evolv Technology on its $1.25 billion business combination with SPAC NewHold Investment Corp.
  • its $1.4 billion sale of its Hardware & Home Improvement Group to Spectrum Brands.
• América Móvil on its:
  • sale of Claro Panama to Liberty Latin America affiliate.
  • formation of telecom JV with Liberty Latin America in Chile. 
• Stagwell Media on its:
  • combination with MDC Partners, pursuant to which Stagwell acquired a 69% interest in MDC through an “Up-C” transaction structure.
  • $108 million debut secondary offering.
• Honeywell on its:
  • combination of Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum Computing and acquisition of a majority stake in the combined company.
  • $300 million equity raise for Quantinuum.
• The Finance of America Companies on its $30 million PIPE equity raise.
• Special Committee of Independent Directors of Emerald Holding on a $400 million convertible preferred stock PIPE led by Onex Corporation.
• Americold on its $1.74 billion acquisition of Agro Merchants Group from Oaktree Capital.
• MercadoLibre on its 2019 PIPE financing with Dragoneer.
• Brookfield Asset Management on its multi-tranche investment in Hospitality Investors Trust, a public REIT, including a novel structure in which Brookfield made its PIPE investment directly into the operating subsidiary of the REIT.

Select Equity Transactions

• EQT Growth Fund as the lead investor in the Series F financing round of Gympass Inc.
• General Atlantic on its:
  • investment in Butternut Box. 
  • investment through its BeyondNetZero climate-focused fund in Sun King. 
  • investment in Reliance Health.
  • investment in Matillion.
• Alpha Dhabi on its:
  • JV with ADNOC to invest in oilfield services technologies and acquisition of an additional equity stake in Gordon Technologies.
  • acquisition of a 25% stake in Gordon Technologies for approximately $164 million.
• CVC Capital Partners on its $150 million investment in The Women's Tennis Association.
• Volkswagen on several matters, including:
  • as the largest stockholder of QuantumScape Corporation on QuantumScape’s $3.3 billion business combination with SPAC Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp.
  • its investment in, and strategic partnership and related licensing arrangements with, 24M Technologies.
  • as significant minority shareholder, as well as the other shareholders, of Austrian e-mobility provider has.to.be gmbh on its $295 million sale to NYSE-listed ChargePoint in exchange for cash and US public company stock.
• Google/Alphabet on several matters, including:
  • its follow-on investment in SpaceX.
  • Softbank’s equity investment in Loon, a subsidiary of Alphabet.
• Rio Tinto on its investment in Terra CO2.
• General Dynamics Land Systems on its Series C investment in Epirus.
• Uber on its investment in Grupo Moove.
• Goldfinch Partners on its $125 million investment in Vesta.
• Universal Music Group on the $3.4 billion sale of 10% of its equity by parent Vivendi to Tencent and related option for Tencent Music to acquire a minority stake in Universal Music's greater China business.
• Stanley Ventures on multiple equity investments in companies developing disruptive technologies, including Evolv Technology, Active Guardian, Dome Zero, Occo, Dynamic Green Products, Triditive, Foresite Healthcare, Evolve Additive Solutions, GTP Services, Fabric8 Labs, 3xLOGIC, ConnectMyEV, ARIX Technologies, Veloxint, Red Point Positioning, Prieto Battery, Pillo Health and FreeWire Technologies.
• The Investment Corporation of Dubai and Voya Financial in connection with several equity investments private companies.
• BNP Paribas on its equity investment in Forge Global’s $50 million Series B financing round.
• Robert Kauffman on his investment in convertible preferred stock of University Bancorp.

Select Public Company Transactional, Reporting and Governance Advice

• SPAC PepperLime Health Acquisition Corp. on its $150 million IPO and listing on Nasdaq.
• Numerous domestic and international corporate and shareholder clients on corporate governance and securities offering related matters, including Carbo Ceramics, Evertec, New Media, American Express, Temasek Holdings, Goldman Sachs, Viking Global Investors, The Hartford and others.
• Several foreign private issuer U.S. registered IPOs, including LINE’s dual-listed U.S.-Japan IPO and the IPOs of Argentine companies Central Puerto and Grupo Supervielle.
• MercadoLibre on corporate governance, SEC reporting and financing matters, including the $1.4 billion registered sale by eBay of its equity interest in MercadoLibre, its $880 million offering of senior notes, related capital call transactions, and concurrent private exchange transactions, and its 2019 concurrent $1 billion equity offering and PIPE financing.