Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has represented U.S.-based Key Safety Systems (KSS) on a $1.6 billion deal to acquire nearly all of Japanese airbag-maker Takata’s assets, which tapped Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu for advice.

Takata faces tens of billions of dollars in costs and liabilities following almost a decade of recalls and lawsuits from faulty air bags linked to at least 16 deaths and 180 injuries around the world. The company has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. and in Japan – the biggest of a Japanese manufacturer, reported Reuters. Takata's total liabilities stand at 1.7 trillion yen ($15 billion), Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd estimated.

The bankruptcy filings opened the door for parts supplier KSS, owned by China's Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp, to take over Takata's viable operations. The companies expect to seal definitive agreements for the sale in coming weeks and complete the twin bankruptcy processes in the first quarter of 2018.

The Skadden team was led by corporate restructuring partner Ron Meisler (Chicago) and M&A partner Steven Daniels (Wilmington). The team also included M&A partner Matthias Horbach (Frankfurt), corporate restructuring partner Felicia Gerber Perlman (Chicago), banking partners Seth Jacobson (Chicago) and Clive Wells (London), tax partner Stuart Finkelstein (New York), litigation partners Albert Hogan III (Chicago) and Amy Van Gelder (Chicago), and antitrust and competition partners John Lyons (Washington, D.C.) and Ingrid Vandenborre (Brussels).

Corporate crisis management partner Akihisa Shiozakim headed the Nagashima team.