Kirkland Advises Applied Aerospace & Defense on $650 Million IPO

Kirkland & Ellis represented Applied Aerospace & Defense, Inc., a Greenbriar Equity Group portfolio company, on its initial public offering. Applied is a premier provider of advanced design, engineering, and vertically integrated manufacturing solutions for leading and next-generation space and defense technology companies. The offering priced 32.5 million shares of Applied's common stock at $20.00 per share, raising $650 million of gross proceeds at a valuation of approximately $3.4 billion. In addition, Applied granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 4.875 million shares of common stock at the initial public offering price. The shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on June 3, 2026, under the ticker symbol "AADX."

Read the company's press release

The Kirkland team included capital markets lawyers Ross Leff, Christie Mok, Aaron Simons, Joelle Ibrahim, Zachary Stricklin and Clara Lang; corporate lawyers Shawn OHargan, Philippe Simard, Justin Prindle, Amay Gupta, Adam Lefkowitz and Aaron Eisen; tax lawyers Sara Zablotney, Timothy Campany and Afshin Khan; executive compensation lawyers Michael Krasnovsky, Steph Matko and Cassie Ashley; debt finance lawyers Kathryn Leonard, Raghav Gupta, Carly Bishop and Sophie Abrams; environmental transactions lawyers Michael Saretsky and Persis Ticknor-Swanson; and technology & IP transactions lawyers Shellie Freedman and Ugomma Ugwu-Uche.