In the summer of 2011 Transatlantic Holdings, Inc., trading at 70 percent of its book value, found itself the target of five companies’ desires. To sort through the offers, the New York–based reinsurance company turned to its longtime counsel, Lois Herzeca at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Over the course of six months, Herzeca helped Transatlantic assess its offers, terminate a friendly deal, combat a hostile one, and ultimately secure a $3.4 billion deal with Alleghany Corporation, all while initiating a novel buyback plan that allowed Transatlantic to return capital to its stockholders.
“Lois did a fantastic job throughout the whole process and made everyone comfortable because she had a deep background and knowledge of Transatlantic. We always had a clear view of what our legal obligations were,” says Gary Schwartz, Transatlantic’s general counsel.
