US technology and software multinational Emerson Electric has called on longtime adviser Davis Polk & Wardwell for its proposed acquisition of the rest of AspenTech that it does not own at a valuation of $15.1bn.

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is acting for AspenTech on the deal. with the team led by Boston-based M&A partners Graham Robinson and Chadé Severin. 

The deal comes as Emerson looks to sharpen its focus on industrial automation. The company bought a 55% stake in smaller rival AspenTech, which provides software and services for the process industries, in 2022. A Davis Polk team led by corporate partners Phillip Mills, Mark Williams and Cheryl Chan advised Emerson on the earlier deal, while Skadden acted for Aspen. 

Mills and Chan are heading the Davis Polk team this time round, with help from partners Travis Triano (executive compensation), Michael Mollerus and Corey Goodman (both tax), Frank Azzopardi (intellectual property), Ronan Harty (antitrust and competition) and John Meade (capital markets). All members of the team are based in the firm’s New York office.

Emerson has offered $240 per share in cash for the rest of Aspen, meaning it would pay about $6.5bn for the stake, according to Reuters. For its part Aspen confirmed it had received the bid on Tuesday (5 November) and said its board would review the proposal. 

Reuters reported Emerson has streamlined its portfolio in the past few years to focus on technology as companies modernise their factory floors to include more automation. Davis Polk guided the firm in the sale of its Climate Technologies business to Blackstone in 2022 and also last year in its $8.2bn acquisition of National Instruments, a major producer of automated test equipment. 

The proposed AspenTech deal is not subject to any financing condition and Emerson said it would not go ahead unless a special committee, comprising directors appointed by Aspen’s board and advised by independent legal and financial advisors, recommended it to Aspen’s board.  

Emerson has also begun to explore alternatives, including a cash sale for its safety and productivity unit, which comprises its remaining businesses not related to its automation portfolio.

The company said it will buy back about $2bn of its common stock in fiscal year 2025, with about $1bn expected to be completed in the first quarter.

News of the proposed deal follows an uptick in global M&A in the first nine months of the year, when the value of deals rose 16% compared to the year before to £2.3trn, according to London Stock Exchange Group. For its part Skadden topped LSEG's global M&A legal advisor rankings by deal value for that time, working on 159 deals worth $331.6bn. The firm placed sixth in the full year 2023 rankings. 

Meantime Davis Polk ranked 10th after working on deals worth just over $176bn in the first three quarters, having ended 2023 in third position behind Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis.