Cleary Gottlieb represented Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and Bank of America in the approximately $30 billion financing of the acquisition of Equity Office Properties Trust by The Blackstone Group, the largest real estate transaction in history and one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history. The financing was divided into a senior and eight mezzanine components, which collectively were secured by real property, joint venture interests and other collateral. Cleary Gottlieb also represented Goldman Sachs in connection with a related bridge equity investment.
Equity Office Properties Trust was the nation’s largest publicly traded office building owner, with total portfolio consisting of whole or partial interests in more than 590 buildings comprising over 105 million square feet of office space in major metropolitan areas.