The power and utilities industry continues to consolidate. And two Texas law firms – Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Baker Botts – are benefiting from the billable hours.
Akin Gump represented Houston-based CenterPoint Energy on its purchase Monday of Indiana natural gas utility Vectren for $72 per share, or around $6 billion, a 9.8 percent premium over the Friday closing price of Vectren’s stock.
The team was led by Houston energy partner W. Robert Shearer, along with attorneys in the firm’s New York and Washington, D.C., offices. Dallas partner Michelle Reed also pitched in from the firm’s cybersecurity, privacy and data protection practice. Bingham Greenebaum Doll was CenterPoint’s Indiana counsel.
A partner in Baker Botts’ New York outpost led the deal for Vectren but some lawyers in the firm’s home state pitched in, including M&A and capital markets partner James Mayor in Houston, senior associate Courtney Fore in Austin and associate Allison Lancaster, also in Austin. Houston partner Rob Fowler worked on benefits matters. Taft Stettinius & Hollister was Vectren’s Indiana counsel and advised the board on Indiana law.
Akin Gump has advised CenterPoint before, including on its $363 million investment in Enable Midstream Partners in 2016. That team included partners David Elder and John Goodgame in Houston and Houston office partner-in-charge Chris LaFollette.
Baker & Botts’ Mayor also has worked with CenterPoint before, advising it on a $575 million exchange offer for convertible notes.
CenterPoint’s general counsel is Dana O’Brien, who joined the utility in 2014 from logistics company CEVA Logistics, where she was chief legal officer and chief compliance officer and a member of the executive board. Before that the University of Texas-trained lawyer was general counsel at Quanta Services, a construction and service provider to the utility industry. After law school, she clerked for then-Justice Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court and began her legal career as a corporate associate at Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
Providing financial advice on the deal were Goldman Sachs for CenterPoint and BofA Merrill Lynch for Vectren.
The combined company will serve more than 7 million customers in eight states, including Vectren’s operations in Indiana and Ohio. Its assets will total $29 billion and it will have an enterprise value of $27 billion.
“By combining our two highly complementary companies, we are creating an energy delivery, infrastructure and services leader that will drive value for our shareholders and customers while enhancing growth opportunities for our businesses,” CenterPoint CEO and president Scott Prochazka said in a statement.
As part of the deal, CenterPoint Energy agreed to contribute an additional $3 million per year for a minimum of five years after the merger’s closing to the Vectren Foundation, which supports education, environmental conservation and environmental stewardship and community revitalization and sustainability across Vectren’s service territory.
The transaction has to clear Vectren shareholders, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and Hart-Scott-Rodino. It’s expected to close in the first quarter of next year.