John D. Franchini

Partner

Contact
F +1 212.530.5219

New York

55 Hudson Yards

New York, NY US 10001-2163

T +1 212.530.5491

F +1 212.530.5219

John D. Franchini is a partner in the Global Corporate/M&A Group of Milbank LLP based in New York. Mr. Franchini also co-heads the firm’s Global Infrastructure Practice.

Primary Focus & Experience

He has extensive experience representing infrastructure, sovereign wealth, private equity, hedge and pension funds, together with their portfolio companies, in investment, acquisition, recapitalization, disposition and strategic joint venture transactions. Mr. Franchini has significant transactional experience involving core and non-core infrastructure assets, power generation and transmission assets, midstream natural gas pipelines, telecommunications business and other digital infrastructure assets, including regulated businesses.

Mr. Franchini also advises public and private companies in connection with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and other corporate transactions, including stock-for-stock mergers, tender offers, private stock and asset purchases, complex joint ventures, private placements of equity securities and restructurings.  He regularly represents clients in competitive auction scenarios, both as sellers and bidders.

Mr. Franchini has completed transactions throughout Asia, Latin America and North America throughout his career. 

Representative transactions include:

  • A sovereign wealth fund in connection with its US $1.785 billion minority investment in Sempra Infrastructure Partners.
  • Apollo Global Management and a group of institutional investors entering into a strategic relationship with Anheuser-Busch InBev to acquire a 49.9% stake in Anheuser-Busch InBev’s US-based metal container plants for approximately US $3 billion.
  • GIC in connection with its joint acquisition with Abertis Infraestructuras, S.A. of an approximate 70 percent stake in Red de Carreteras de Occidente S.A.B. de C.V., the largest toll road concession in Mexico. This transaction was named “Private Equity Deal of the Year” by LatinFinance
  • QIC Global Infrastructure in its multiple equity investments in Generate Capital, a leading sustainable infrastructure platform.
  • Seaborn Networks, a fiber optic cable developer and operator, in the debt and equity financing for the Seabras-1 cable project, the first direct submarine cable connection between New York and São Paulo. This deal was awarded “Best Deal of 2015” by Global Trade Review, “Best Americas ECA Finance Deal” by Trade Export Finance, Best Infrastructure Financing: Brazil” by LatinFinance, “Greenfield Deal of the Year” by World Finance and “Wholesale Service Innovation” by Global Telecoms Business
  • iCON Infrastructure in the acquisition and subsequent sale of Mountaineer Gas, the largest gas local distribution company in West Virginia.
  • CDPQ in connection with the acquisition of a 15% interest in the Indiana Toll Road from IFM Global Infrastructure.
  • Ullico Infrastructure Fund in its acquisition of Hearthstone Utilities, which owns and operates six natural gas local distribution companies across five states, and subsequent acquisition of Hope Gas, a regulated gas distribution company located in West Virginia.
  • Actis in its sale of Zuma Energia, which owns and operates a portfolio of utility scale wind and solar assets in Mexico, to China Power International Holding Limited.
  • ORBCOMM, a global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, in its US $1.1 billion sale to GI Partners.
  • Partners Group in its acquisition of a controlling interest in Fermaca, Mexico’s leading midstream natural gas infrastructure firm.
  • iCON Infrastructure Partners and its portfolio company TruVista Telecommunications in the acquisition of Plant Telephone Company, a leading telecommunications solutions provider in Southern Georgia.
  • Apollo Global Management on behalf of Apollo-managed funds and entities in their €500 million investment into a spare engine portfolio owned and utilized by Air France-KLM.
  • Macquarie Corporate Holdings Party Limited and Techint, S.A. de C.V. in connection with the highly complex acquisition and restructuring of existing equity and debt, development and financing of Norte III, a 907 MW combined-cycle gas turbine power plant in Chihuahua, Mexico. The deal was described as “Latin America’s premiere power project financing of the year” by Project Finance International and was awarded “Project Finance Deal of the Year” by Latin Lawyer and “Latin America Power Deal of the Year” by IJGlobal

Recognition & Accomplishments

Mr. Franchini repeatedly has been recognized by Chambers USA for his M&A and private equity work and also has been named as a leading lawyer in The Legal 500 United States and The Legal 500 Latin America.  He regularly publishes articles and speaks at conferences on M&A and equity investing matters. 

Mr. Franchini served as an editor of the Fordham Law Review and was the recipient of the MCI International Law Fellowship through which he conducted a study of privatization in the Czech Republic in conjunction with The World Bank.  He is also a member of the American Bar Association. 

Additional Details
Education
  • Fordham University School of Law, J.D.
  • Lehigh University, B.A.
Admissions
  • New York