Spring-based natural gas company Expand Energy said Monday that it has acquired Houston wholesale energy marketing company Twin Eagle Holdings for $1.25 billion from private equity firm Five Point Infrastructure.
Chris Lacy is general counsel at Expand Energy, which used White & Case as outside legal counsel led by Houston partners Josh Teahen, Patrick Johnson and Alex Miron. Tom Goldbond is general counsel at Twin Eagle, which was advised by Latham & Watkins, led by Thomas Brandt in Houston and David Kurzweil in New York.
“This transaction accelerates Expand’s evolution into a leading integrated natural gas company with a commercial and marketing advantage,” said CEO Michael Wichterich. “We’re already North America’s largest natural gas producer, and now we’ll be its leading gas marketer, with direct access to customers and structural demand growth. By combining Expand’s scale, resource depth and financial strength with Twin Eagle’s marketing and optimization platform, we’ll capture additional margin across the natural gas value chain and deliver more durable shareholder returns.”
Founded in 2010, Twin Eagle said it now markets more than 14 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas with 49 Bcf of storage capacity and about 9 Bcf/d of firm transportation to more than 1,000 customers in the U.S. and Canada.
PJT Partners is the financial advisor to Expand Energy, and Lazard serves as financial advisor to Twin Eagle. The companies expect the deal to close in the third quarter.
White & Case lawyers who advised Expand Energy from Houston include A.J. Ericksen, Neil Clausen, Taylor Pullins, Sean Gorman, Janie Calloway, Matthew Kraemer and Carolina Braga.
The Latham & Watkins team included Texas lawyers Ziyad Barghouthy (Houston), Kevin Donovan (Houston), Patrick Donlon (Houston), E.B. Nasir (Houston), Tim Fenn (Houston), Jared Grimley (Houston), Joshua Marnitz (Los Angeles/Houston), Gaby Alvarez (Houston), Julia Harriman (Houston), Andrew Abokhair (Austin) and Robert Brown (Houston/Austin).
Latham attorneys who advised from outside Texas: Ryleigh Chen (Silicon Valley), Jason Cruise (Washington, D.C.), Brian Goodell (Washington, D.C.), Les Carnegie (Washington, D.C.), Amulya Vadapalli (Washington, D.C.) and Erin Brown Jones (Washington, D.C.).