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MoFo Advises Community Choice Financial in Acquisition of Businesses from CURO

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Morrison Foerster advised Community Choice Financial, a consumer financial services company based in Ohio, in connection with its acquisition of CURO Group Holdings Corp.’s (NYSE: CURO) Legacy U.S. Direct Lending business, for a total cash consideration of $345 million.

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Morrison Foerster advised Community Choice Financial, a consumer financial services company based in Ohio, in connection with its acquisition of CURO Group Holdings Corp.’s (NYSE: CURO) Legacy U.S. Direct Lending business, for a total cash consideration of $345 million.Community Choice Financial is a leading retailer of financial services to unbanked and underbanked consumers through a network of retail storefronts and via the Internet. The businesses being acquired by Community Choice Financial include CURO’s legacy storefronts and online businesses in the U.S. operating under the Speedy Cash, Rapid Cash and Avio Credit brands. The transaction is expected to close within 45 days, subject to satisfaction of certain conditions. The MoFo team advising Community Choice Financial was led by New York corporate partners John Owen and Aly El Hamamsy, together with Boston associate Leo Martin, New York associates Kaiyan Yeo and Andrew Ravits, and Washington, D.C. associate Shams Haidari; and by New York finance partner Jay Gavigan, together with New York associates Jeff Xu and Sabienne Brutus.

MoFo Advises Community Choice Financial in Acquisition of Businesses from CURO

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John is a Capital Markets, Public Company Advisory & Governance, and Special Situations partner with more than 20 years of experience advising issuers, underwriters, and other market participants in a wide range of special situations, equity, and debt financing transactions. He has significant experience advising on refinancing and liability management transactions, initial public offerings, high yield and investment grade debt offerings, and private placements. John also regularly advises on structuring and executing cross border financing, liability management, and special situation transactions, having advised on matters involving a wide range of jurisdictions, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, France, India, Indonesia, Israel, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.  John has worked with a wide variety of companies across many industries, including consumer products, technology, life sciences, energy, telecommunications, and financial services. He has advised on transactions for issuers as diversified as Arm Holdings, RH (formerly Restoration Hardware), PepsiCo, Monster Beverage, Omnicom, Tate & Lyle, and Vonage.  In addition to routinely advising issuers, investors, and other market participants on the structuring and execution of debt capital markets transactions, having advised on aggregate financing transactions in excess of $50 billion in the last ten years, John also frequently collaborates with cross-practice teams to advise on and structure in-court and out-of-court restructuring and other liability management transactions. John has completed course work at the University of Cambridge on sustainable finance and serves on the firm’s ESG steering committee. He also serves on the firm’s diversity and inclusion committee as well as its New York hiring committee. John has regularly been recognized as an IFLR1000 notable practitioner and by The Legal 500 for his work on capital markets transactions. <h4>Representative Experience</h4><h5>Capital Raising Transactions</h5><ul><li>Arm Holdings plc, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company, in its blockbuster $5.22 billion USD IPO on Nasdaq, the largest IPO of 2023</li><li>Sprint Corp. in connection with its $1.0 billion guaranteed notes offering</li><li>Vonage in its $300 million convertible note offering</li><li>RH’s issuance of $300 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible notes</li><li>FTI Consulting in its $316.25 million convertible note offering</li><li>TransDigm Group in its offering of $500 million Senior Subordinated Notes by its UK subsidiary</li><li>Lodha Developers, a leading developer of luxury real estate in India, in its $200 million secured bond offering by its UK subsidiary</li></ul><h5>Special Situations</h5><ul><li>SoftBank Group’s investment in 6% senior notes issued by Fair Technologies</li><li>Counsel to an institutional senior secured noteholder in connection with an out-of-court exchange offer and recapitalization transaction by Associated Materials</li><li>Counsel to an ad hoc group of former noteholders in connection with the proposed initial public offering of Southeastern Grocers, following its chapter 11 bankruptcy</li><li>Counsel to the ad hoc group of senior secured noteholders, in the chapter 11 cases of EP Energy</li><li>Counsel to the ad hoc group of first lien noteholders, as noteholders and backstop DIP lenders, in the chapter 11 bankruptcy of Sanchez Energy</li><li>Lodha Developers International in its consent solicitation relating to $200 million of 12% Guaranteed Senior Notes</li><li>Sprint in connection with its $1.7 billion tender offers for 9.000% Guaranteed Notes and 8.375% Notes</li><li>Frontier Communication in the concurrent fixed price tender offers to purchase any and all of its 6.625% Senior Notes and any and all of its 7.875% Senior Notes, and in a modified Dutch auction tender offer to purchase up to $225 million aggregate principal amount of its 8.250% Senior Notes</li></ul>

John Owen

Partner

Aly El Hamamsy is a corporate partner in the firm’s New York office.Aly has nearly 20 years of experience advising on complex transactions including public and private acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings, joint ventures, corporate governance, and hostile takeovers. He has extensive experience in a variety of industries, including private equity, financial services, asset management, healthcare, technology, energy, and consumer goods. His transactional practice encompasses both U.S. domestic and cross-border M&A and joint ventures.Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, Aly was a partner at another international law firm, where he advised on M&A transactions. He also previously acted as managing director of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Middle East Region, where he led the NBA’s operations in 11 countries for five different business lines and brand extensions.Aly earned his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a James Kent Scholar. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from McGill University. He is fluent in French and Arabic, and conversational in Italian.<h4>Representative Experience</h4><ul><li>Sky Harbour LLC, a developer of private aviation infrastructure focused on building, leasing, and managing business aviation hangars, in its business combination agreement with Yellowstone Acquisition Company (NASDAQ: YSAC, YSACU, and YSACW), a publicly traded SPAC sponsored by Boston Omaha Corporation (NASDAQ:BOMN). The combined company will have an implied pro forma equity market value of approximately $777 million at closing.</li><li>A diversified international markets infrastructure business in its US$27 billion acquisition of one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure.</li><li>A multinational automotive parts manufacturing company in its acquisition of a leading global materials science and manufacturing expert’s anti-vibration systems business.</li><li>A multinational investment bank and financial services company in the sale of its alternative fund businesses to a global provider of fund administration services and a San Francisco-based private equity firm.</li><li>A German chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world in its €5.9 billion acquisition of significant components of a multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company’s seed and non-selective herbicide businesses.</li><li>The independent directors of the board of directors of an American cable television provider in connection with its separation from a French multinational telecommunications corporation.</li><li>A U.S. mining company, a wholly owned subsidiary of a global Belgian material solutions company, on its merger with a U.S. industrial sand company.</li><li>A financial services firm focused on the legal market on its US$160 million acquisition of the parent company of a litigation finance and asset management firm, combining the two largest litigation finance players in the world.</li><li>An American pharmaceutical company on its US$2.5 billion proposed inversion combination with a subsidiary of an Irish pharmaceutical company, and its US$15.6 billion acquisition by a Canadian pharmaceutical company.</li><li>A multinational commodity trading company on its acquisition of a global financial services company’s physical energy and commodities business.</li><li>A Spanish multinational financial services company on its US$1.9 billion acquisition of a U.S. bank.</li><li>An American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation on its sale of a majority stake in a retail broker to an American multinational investment bank and financial services company.</li><li>A British multinational universal bank on the sale of its U.S. power and natural gas commodities trading assets to a leading global bank’s energy division.</li></ul>

Aly El Hamamsy

Leo Martin is a corporate partner in the Transactions Department and the Mergers + Acquisitions Group, based in the firm’s Boston office.His practice focuses on advising public and private companies in complex corporate transactions, including domestic and cross-border M&A, carve-out transactions, venture investments, and joint ventures. He regularly represents private equity sponsors and clients in a range of industries, including technology, food + agriculture, financial services, manufacturing, and consumer products.Leo earned his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and his B.A. from Columbia College at Columbia University. Prior to joining the firm’s Boston office, Leo spent a number of years in Morrison Foerster’s Tokyo office, where he worked on a variety of cross-border M&A transactions.

Leo Martin

Shams Haidari is a corporate associate in the Washington D.C. office of Morrison Foerster.Shams advises public and private clients on a wide range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructurings, and financings.Prior to joining the firm, Shams was an associate at another international law firm, where she advised on transactions and tax matters.Shams received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as the Tax Chair for the Harvard Association for Law & Business, Executive Editor for the Harvard Business Law Review, and Submissions Reviewer for Harvard Environmental Law Review.Shams holds a B.A., summa cum laude, from University of Pennsylvania.Shams is fluent in Arabic.

Shams Alaa Haidari

Associate

Jeff Xu is a member of the Firm’s Finance Group. He represents financial institutions, private credit funds, public and private companies and other borrowers and lenders in financing transactions, including secured and unsecured, syndicated, acquisition, subscription line, ABL, trade, debtor-in-possession and other complex financings, with a particular focus on private credit.His pro bono practice focuses on representing elderly and low income New Yorkers with their essential life planning documents.Jeff graduated magna cum laude from Fordham University School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif.

Jeff Xu

Sabienne Brutus is an associate in Morrison Foerster’s Finance Group in the New York office. She represents borrowers and lenders in a broad range of domestic and cross-border finance transactions, including acquisition and leveraged finance, fund finance, project finance and asset-based finance.Before joining Morrison Foerster, Sabienne worked as an analyst for an e-discovery company. She received her J.D. from the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University with a concentration on rule of law and constitutional design. She was the managing editor of the Indiana Journal for Global Legal Studies. Sabienne was awarded the 2019 Snyder Visiting Scholar Fellowship to conduct an independent research project on international law and monetary policy at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge.Sabienne serves on the board of directors for New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit organization working toward education equity in New York City high schools. In 2022, Sabienne was named a Top 40 Under 40 Lawyer in New York State by The National Black Lawyers, a membership organization made up of the top African American attorneys in the United States.Sabienne speaks Haitian Kreyòl, French, and Spanish.

Sabienne Brutus

Lending + Financial Transactions

Mergers + Acquisitions