Leo Borchardt
Advises on a broad range of public and private capital markets, M&A and other strategic transactions.
Leo advises growth companies, large corporations, boards of directors, special committees and investment banks on a variety of significant SEC-registered and unregistered capital markets, public and private cross-border M&A and other strategic corporate transactions. His experience spans a variety of industries, including healthcare, technology, telecommunications, financial institutions and manufacturing.
Leo regularly advises clients on corporate governance, SEC reporting and compliance, and general corporate matters. He also provides counsel in crisis situations, including with respect to accounting and disclosure implications. Leo has worked in three Davis Polk offices and is bilingual in German and English.
Experience highlights
Mergers & Acquisitions
- Reliance Industries:
- Capital raisings for Jio Platforms totaling over $10bn from investors including Google, PIF, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, Intel and Qualcomm
- Capital raisings for Reliance Retail Ventures from investors including ADIA, Mubadala, General Atlantic, KKR and Silver Lake
- Agreement to acquire wireless infrastructure assets from Reliance Communications
- Celonis on its acquisition of Integromat
- Mereo BioPharma on its combination with OncoMed Pharmaceuticals
- Telia Company:
- $1.03bn sale of its holding in Nepalese telecom operator Ncell to Axiata
- Sales of its interests in Tcell and Roshan to AKFED
- Technip on its $17bn combination with FMC Technologies
- Joint ventures:
- Reliance Industries on its 51%/49% JV with BP relating to their petroleum retail business in India
- Bertelsmann on its Penguin Random House venture with Pearson
- XL Group on its JV with Stone Point Capital
- Pattern Energy’s conflicts committee on the acquisitions of six wind power projects
- Sterling Financial on its $2bn merger with Umpqua
- MSCI on its acquisition of IPD Group
Capital Markets
IPOs and Other Equity Transactions
- U.S. IPOs or listings of Centogene and Mereo BioPharma, and U.S. SPAC IPOs of Forbion European Acquisition Corp., Target Global Acquisition I Corp., Mountain & Co. I Acquisition Corp., Frontier Investment Corp., European Biotech Acquisition Corp. and Levere Holdings Corp.
- European IPOs and follow-on offerings of Boozt (SEK1.85bn), Scout24 (€1.2bn) and Tele Columbus (€367m and €383m)
- The underwriters on the:
- IPOs of CEVA Logistics (CHF1.1bn), Handicare (SEK1bn), NXP ($476m) and Schaeffler (€938m)
- Rights issues by Deutsche Bank (three offerings, total of €24.9bn), Erste Group (€1.7bn) and Heidelberger Druck (€420m)
- Follow-on offerings of HeidelbergCement (€4.4bn) and NXP ($1bn)
- Spin-offs by:
- TechnipFMC of Technip Energies
- Siemens of its gas and power business
- Julius Baer of its asset management business
Debt
- The underwriters on six SEC-registered offerings of AT1 and subordinated T2 regulatory capital by Deutsche Bank totaling $8bn
- SEC-registered notes offerings for AstraZeneca and BBVA (issuer side) and Diageo, Equinor, Linde, OeKB and Rio Tinto (underwriters side), totaling more than $55bn
- Rule 144A notes offerings of Reliance Industries, Roche and a leading German automobile manufacturer (issuer side) and Crédit Agricole, Fresenius Medical Care, NXP and Yara International (underwriters side), totaling more than $45bn
News
Credentials
Recognition
IFLR1000 – Capital Markets: Equity, M&A, United Kingdom, Highly Regarded
Legal 500 UK – Debt Capital Markets
Education
- Arthur T. Vanderbilt Scholar
- Frank T. Diersen Prize
- Vanderbilt Medal for Outstanding Contributions to the School of Law
- Graduate Editor, NYU Journal of International Law and Politics
- Book of Honor
- Second in Class
Professional history
- Partner, 2016-present
- Davis Polk since 2008
- London office, 2009-2012 and 2014-present
- New York office, 2012-2014
- Frankfurt office, 2008-2009
Qualifications and admissions
- State of New York