Frederic Smith has more than 25 years of experience advising businesses on M&A transactions, contract negotiations, business succession issues, joint venture transactions and financing transactions. In addition to his transactional practice, Frederic serves as outside general counsel to several privately held and family-owned businesses. He has a broad range of experience in different industries, but has a particular focus representing companies in the construction, manufacturing, construction aggregates, oil and gas services, and real estate industries.
Frederic is an active member of the American Bar Association’s M&A Committee, where he chairs a working group that tracks judicial developments in M&A transactions and is a regular contributor to the Annual Survey of M&A Cases published in The Business Lawyer.
Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® Business Organizations [Including LLCs and Partnerships], 2015-2024 Corporate Law, 2014-2024 Mergers and Acquisitions Law, 2012-2024 "Lawyer of the Year," Birmingham, Mergers & Acquisitions Law, 2016 "Lawyer of the Year," Birmingham, Business Organizations [Including LLCs and Partnerships], 2018 "Lawyer of the Year," Birmingham, Corporate Law, 2022 Listed in Alabama Super Lawyers Listed in Who's Who Legal, M&A and Governance, 2021 Represented Houston-based Cherry Industries in $298 million sale to Arcosa, Inc. (NYSE: ACA). Cherry Industries is a leading producer of natural and recycled aggregates in the Houston market. Represented Atlas Welding Supply, a leading distributor of industrial, specialty and medical gases in Alabama, when Meritus Gas Partners simultaneously acquired Atlas and Willingham Welding Solutions (d/b/a Gas Innovations), a Houston-based, worldwide supplier of high purity hydrocarbons, refrigerant gases and specialty gases. Represented Houston Mechatronics, Inc., a Houston-based robotics company for the oil and gas industry, in connection with a $20 million Series B preferred stock investment by Transocean and Schlumberger. Represented a family-owned forklift distributor in the sale of substantially all of its assets, including four facilities in Alabama, to a strategic buyer. Advised numerous family-owned and privately held businesses on succession planning. Serves as outside general counsel to the U.S. subsidiary of a U.K.-based, private-equity backed company that manufactures and distributes composition leather products for the aviation, rail, marine, bus and upholstery industries. Represented Phifer Incorporated, a leading manufacturer and supplier of insect screen, solar control fabrics and drawn wire, in the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of a manufacturing company based in York, Pennsylvania, in a bankruptcy auction conducted pursuant to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding in Delaware. Represented Vulcan Materials Company in an asset exchange with Cemex S.A.B. de CV under which Vulcan exchanged 12 ready-mix concrete plants in California for 13 hot-mix asphalt plants owned by Cemex and located primarily in Arizona. The transaction involved the negotiation of several supply agreements. Represented Birmingham-based Daniel Corporation in the sale of its equity interest in a 38-story, 725,000-square-foot tower in midtown Atlanta to MetLife. Represented FLSmidth, a leading supplier of equipment and services to the global minerals and cement industries, in its acquisition of Decanter Machine, a manufacturer of centrifugal technology to the global minerals industries. Represented Vulcan Materials Company in numerous acquisitions and sales of limestone and granite quarries and related distribution outlets. Represented Doss Aviation, a U.S. government contractor headquartered in Colorado Springs providing flight training, aircraft maintenance, air traffic control and airfield maintenance/logistics, in its sale to J.F. Lehman & Company, a private equity firm focused on the defense, aerospace and maritime industries. Represented various real estate development firms in the structuring, negotiation and financing of joint ventures for the development of multifamily apartment, office, retail, student housing and senior housing projects throughout the United States. Represented VT Systems, a subsidiary of Singapore Technologies, Ltd., in the acquisition of World Marine, LLC’s shipyard and offshore oil rig repair and conversion facility in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
