Andrews Kurth and V&E Lead Regency- Eagle Rock Energy Deal

© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.

By Mark Curriden, JD
Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook

(December 23) – Dallas-based Regency Energy Partners is buying all the midstream assets and business of Houston-based Eagle Rock Energy Partners for $1.3 billion.

Regency, a master limited partnership that is mostly owned and controlled by Energy Transfer Equity, also a MLP based in Dallas, has thousands and thousands of miles of natural gas pipelines in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

The acquisition of Eagle Rock’s midstream operation adds another 8,100 miles of gathering pipeline to Regency’s control, as well as processing plants handling more than 800 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2014.

Mike O’Leary, an M&A partner at Andrews Kurth in Houston, is advising Regency on the transaction. O’Leary has represented Energy Transfer Partners and its network of associated companies that includes Regency in a handful of major deals. For example, he led ETP in its $1.5 billion sale of Southern Union Gathering Company to Regency in February 2013. O’Leary also advised LaGrange Acquisition, which is also a subsidiary of ETP, in its sale of ETC Pipeline to Summit Midstream Partners in September 2012.

Other Andrews Kurth partners involved in the transaction are Stephanie Beauvais, Henry Havre, Dudley Murrey, Rob Taylor, Lee McMurtry, Tom Ford, Angela Richards and Kay Lynn Brumbaugh.

Vinson & Elkins M&A partner Steve Gill of Houston is advising Eagle Rock. V&E has represented ETP and its affiliated MLPs in various transactions. Gill recently advised Huntsman Corp. in its $1.1 billion acquisition of Rockwood Holdings’ chemical additives business.

Other V&E lawyers playing a key role in the Eagle Rock deal are M&A associate Shaun Mathew, partners John Lynch (tax), David D’Alessandro (employee benefits), Sean Becker (employment & labor), Dionne Lomax (antitrust), Billy Vigdor (antitrust), Doug McWilliams (capital markets), Michael Holmes (complex commercial litigation), Michael Harrington (capital markets), Dave Wicklund (finance) and Larry Nettles (environmental).

ETP General Counsel Tom Mason is a former energy partner at V&E.

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