Michael J. Hong

Mr. Hong regularly represents financial institutions and corporate clients in a broad range of U.S, Canadian and other international transactions, including initial public offerings and private equity transactions and financings under the U.S.-Canada Multijurisdictional Disclosure System.

Mr. Hong has led more than 50 high-yield debt offerings since 2021 — with aggregate proceeds of over $40 billion — including for Venture Global LNG in 2023, which was the second-largest inaugural high-yield notes offering in history. Mr. Hong also has substantial experience in the energy sector, leading numerous debt and equity transactions for energy companies, including NextEra Energy, Devon Energy, D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, Ohmium International, Hunt Oil, First Solar, Cheniere Energy, TerraForm, AES Corporation, Rentech Energy Partners, FTC Solar, Forestar Group and Shelf Drilling.

In recognition of his work, Mr. Hong has been ranked by Chambers USA and named one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Dealmakers in America. He serves as a member of Skadden’s Opinion and Hiring committees.

Recent representations include:

High-Yield (Non-Energy)

• Global Auto Holdings in its $1.05 billion inaugural high-yield notes offering and subsequent $500 million high-yield notes acquisition financing
• Morgan Automotive Group in high-yield notes offerings aggregating in excess of $1 billion
• Sands China Ltd. in multiple high-yield notes offerings aggregating in excess of $8 billion
• the initial purchasers in the $350 million high-yield secured notes offering of Algoma Steel Inc.
• the initial purchasers in the $400 million high-yield notes offering of New Gold Inc.
• Acrisure Holdings in multiple secured and unsecured high-yield notes offerings aggregating in excess of $1.5 billion
• Performance Food Group Company in multiple high-yield notes offering aggregating in excess of $1 billion
• goeasy Ltd. in multiple high-yield notes offerings aggregating in excess of $1 billion
• Open Text Corporation in its $1.5 billion high-yield notes offering - the initial purchasers in the $650 million and $500 million high-yield notes offerings of Brookfield Residential Properties Inc.
• the initial purchasers in the $400 million inaugural high-yield notes offering of Ero Copper
• the initial purchasers in the $600 million high-yield notes offering of Ryman Hospitality
• the initial purchasers in the $1.6 billion high-yield notes offering of Novelis Corporation
• Ashtead Group in multiple high-yield secured notes offerings aggregating in excess of $1.7 billion
• Frontier Communications Corporation in its $6.6 billion high-yield notes offering
• the initial purchasers in the $650 million high-yield notes offering by IAMGOLD Corporation
• the initial purchasers multiple high-yield notes offerings of Starwood Properties Trust Inc. aggregating in excess of $1 billion
• Navient Corp. in various high-yield notes offerings aggregating in excess of $1 billion
• the initial purchasers in the $500 million high-yield notes offering of Ladder Capital Corp
• the initial purchasers in the $900 million high-yield notes offering of MDC Partners Inc.
• Party City in various secured high-yield notes offerings, including an exchange offer for $850 million of existing high-yield notes
• Alpha Auto Group in its $243.5 million high-yield notes offering

Private Capital Financings

• Ohmium International, Inc. in its $250 million Series C preferred financing round led by TPG Rise Climate
• D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments in its $250 million Series A preferred financing and sale of a significant minority stake to funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management
• Acrisure Holdings in multiple preferred stock financings, including its $3 billion private placement of Series A and Series B preferred stock with BDT as lead investor and its $2.1 billion private placement of Series A-2 preferred stock with Bain Capital as lead investor
• Recurrent Energy B.V. in its up to $750 million Series A preferred financing by BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure Business
• Spotify AB in its $1 billion private placement of convertible notes to an investor group led by TPG Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group
• Castillo Hermanos, a family-owned conglomerate based in Guatemala, and Centerview Capital Holdings, LLC in their acquisition of Harvest Hill Beverage Co. and related preferred equity financing
• Bitfarms Ltd. in its up to $350 million private debt and warrant private placement to Macquarie Group
• Hut 8 Corp. in its $150 million private placement of convertible notes to Coatue Management
• CC Capital in its $250 million equity investment in The Westaim Corporation
• Mubadala Investment Company PJSC as one of the lead co-investors with Silver Lake in the going-private acquisition of Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. at an enterprise value of $25 billion

Energy

• the underwriters in the $1.7 billion initial public offering of Venture Global, Inc.
• the initial purchasers in a $3 billion offering of 9.00% fixed-rate perpetual preferred stock by Venture Global LNG, Inc.
• Recurrent Energy B.V. in its up to $750 million Series A preferred financing by BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure Business
• Hunt Oil (Peru) in its high-yield notes offerings aggregating in excess of $1 billion
• the initial purchasers in $9.5 billion of high-yield notes offerings for Venture Global LNG, which included the largest and second-largest high-yield notes offerings in 2023
• Talen Energy in a series of refinancing transactions, including its $400 million offering of high-yield notes and related tender offers
• the underwriters in the $250 million initial public offering of Enlight Renewable
• NextEra Energy, Inc. in the $406 million initial public offering of common units of NextEra Energy Partners, L.P., its yieldco
• the initial purchasers and underwriters in multiple debt and equity-linked offerings for The AES Corporation aggregating over $4 billion
• the initial purchasers in the inaugural $2 billion high-yield notes offering of Cheniere Energy, Inc. and multiple high-yield and investment-grade secured and unsecured notes offerings, aggregating in excess of $9 billion, by its subsidiaries
• First Solar, Inc. in the $420 million initial public offering of common units of its joint venture yieldco 8point3 Energy Partners, L.P.
• Devon Energy in multiple tender offer transactions for notes in excess of $2 billion
• Shelf Drilling Holdings, Ltd. in its $600 million high-yield notes offering
• SunEdison, Inc., TerraForm Power, Inc. and TerraForm Global, Inc. in numerous financing transactions, including public and private offerings of notes and preferred stock
• Forestar Group Inc. in its $250 million high-yield notes offering, $125 million convertible notes offering and $150 million tangible equity units offering

Other

• Vaxcyte, Inc. in its $1.5 billion offering of Class A common stock and pre-funded warrants
• Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in its $500 million convertible senior secured notes offering pursuant to a privately negotiated exchange
• Stanley Black & Decker in various public offerings, including its $750 million offering of subordinated debentures, $1 billion offering of senior notes and $675 million offering of equity units
• Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors in its $340 million initial public offering of common shares
• the underwriters in the $290 million initial public offering of common stock of Bats Global Markets, Inc.
• the underwriters in the $671 million initial public offering of common units of The Carlyle Group
• Anywhere Holdings Corp. in numerous financing transactions, including its $1.2 billion initial public offering, multiple secured and unsecured high-yield notes offerings and a $2.7 billion exchange transaction
• various issuers, including Meta Platforms, Inc., CME Group, Crane Co., WhiteWave Foods, Healthpeak Properties, Hillenbrand, Hasbro, XL, Ball Corp. and Activision, in investment-grade notes offerings aggregating in excess of $40 billion