Dykema’s 20th anniversary M&A Outlook Survey is grounded in optimism, a far cry from the doom-saying that characterizes these final days of the presidential race. The survey, taken between late July and early August suggests that M&A may well thrive between now and mid-2025. The CDT Roundup takes a look at the apparent reasoning behind such optimism, along with the usual list of Texas-related transactions reported last week.
Of 3,299 State Bar Examinees, Here’s the Top 3
Scores on the state’s bar exam are confidential. Statistics are not. This much we know from the Board of Law Examiners: of 3,299 individuals who took the latest exam back in July, 74.5 percent of them passed. But courtesy of Texas Supreme Court Justice Brett Busby, the court’s liaison to the BLE, we do know the names of the top three examinees.
Phillips 66 Sells Stake in Swiss Venture for $1.24B
As part of a promised $3 billion in divestitures, P66 is selling off its minority share in Coop Pronto, an operator of food-and-gas locations across Switzerland.
White & Case Snags Veteran LNG Advisor Monica Hwang
Specializing in O&G finance and energy risk analytics, Hwang has worked on LNG projects from Australia to Mozambique, along with extensive experience in traditional energy in the upstream and midstream space.
CDT Roundup: 17 Deals, 12 Firms, 150 Lawyers, $8.4B
Chevron’s announcement last week of a $6.5 billion divestiture of a couple of Canadian upstream interests reminded us that the California company is on the verge of relocating its C-Suite to Houston. But included, along with the household furniture and company file cabinets, is an ongoing beef with their new Texas neighbors, Exxon Mobil, over Chevron’s proposed $53 billion merger with Hess Corp. The CDT Roundup catches up with recent developments regarding the disputed merger, along with the usual list of firms and lawyers behind last week’s Texas-related transactions.
CDT Roundup: 22 Deals, 10 Firms, 189 Lawyers, $23.2B
There’s no way to play down 22 reported transactions for this week valued at more than $23 billion; it was a good week, especially when 15 of those are M&A and your capital markets deals include two IPOs. But in addition to the usual summary of all those deals, along with the firms and lawyers behind them, we take our quarterly look at the number of publicly-reported transactions we’ve handled in the CDT Roundup thus far in 2024.
Three Dealmakers Bolt Winston for Jones Day
Rodney Moore, Samuel Peca and Scott Delaney — all veterans of Weil — are headed to Jones Day after less than two years at Winston & Strawn.
CDT Roundup: 11 Deals, 7 Firms, 144 Lawyers, $2.4B
The Dallas Fed each quarter surveys executives from six different business sectors. The Fed’s surveys for the third quarter were released last week. The CDT Roundup looks at the one on energy, which reveals a peculiar lack of enthusiasm for a sector rampant with M&A. That, and the usual review of the firms and lawyers behind last week’s modest number of transactions.
Amber Energy Acquires CITGO in Court-ordered Sale
A special master for a federal court in Delaware has named Amber Energy Inc. as its court-approved bidder for CITGO, one of the largest refiners and distributors of petroleum products in the U.S. The sale, which values Houston-based CITGO at $7.28 billion, is aimed at settling some of the $21.3 billion in claims against CITGO’s former owners, the state-controlled energy company of Venezuela.
AT&T Sells DirecTV to TPG for $7.6B; DirecTV acquires rival Dish for $1 and $9.75B Debt
The two-deal parlay by TPG, which formally ends AT&Ts $49 billion venture into the home entertainment business, was advised by Gibson Dunn, Ropes & Gray, Cleary Gottlieb, Steptoe & Johnson, HWG, Crowell & Morning, White & Case and Mintz, Levin.