Private equity is back; particularly in middle market deals. Pitchbook says so in a report released last week. In their study of H1 data Pitchbook forecasts that middle market deal counts will reach 3,400 by the end of the year, with values of as much as $345 billion. That would make it the third-best year for middle market PE deals, ever. If you want particulars, look no further than this week’s CDT Roundup, in which 13 of last week’s 16 M&A/Funding deals involved some form of PE participation. The Roundup even has the names of the lawyers behind them.
CDT Roundup: 12 Deals, 16 Firms, 168 Lawyers, $20.7B
Deals are all about numbers: enterprise value, debt, return on investment, EBITDA, yield, etc. The CDT this week looks at a few of the deals from last week whose terms were undisclosed but suggest values that could make a week look far better than it does on paper. That, along with the usual summaries of Texas-related deals reported last week — whether they had values attached or not.
Locke Lord, Troutman Pepper Vote to Merge
The combination will create a firm of more than 1,600 lawyers in 35 offices which last year reported more than $1.5 billion in revenues, placing it in the top 30 of the Am Law 100 rankings.
Kent Zimmermann, a strategic adviser and principal with the Zeughauser Group, introduced the two firms and describes the combination as “the most appealing in recent history.”
Verizon to Acquire Frontier Communications in $20B Transaction
Debevoise & Plimpton advised Verizon. Cravath, Swain & Moore advised Frontier. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison counseled Frontier’s strategic review committee.
CDT Roundup: 13 Deals, 9 Firms, 134 Lawyers, $20.6B
Others are beginning to notice what The Texas Lawbook has been following for some time: that despite the carping of state lawmakers and fossil fuel grumps, renewables are being woven into the fabric of Texas energy — both in its dealmaking and its grid. The analysts at Preqin are the latest to say so out loud. This week’s CDT Roundup has their observations along with the usual roster of last week’s deals.
Claire Poole, the Doyenne of Texas Deal Journalism, is Retiring
Claire Poole, one of the brightest lights in business journalism, is retiring. Her last day is today. For decades, she has written about dealmaking in Texas and beyond with integrity, talent and grit. But the biggest story she’s been involved with may well be her own.
Arch Resources, CONSOL Energy to Merge, Creating $5.2B Global Coal Operation
Latham & Watkins, Gibson Dunn, Wachtell and McGuireWoods advised on the $2.8 billion merger-of-equals transaction to create Core Natural Resources. The deal combines mining operations across 11 states aimed at global coal exports of metallurgic grade coal.
Lone Star Funds to Acquire Carrier Global Fire Business for $3B
Carrier Global says the sale to Dallas-based PE Lone Star is part of its continuing divestiture of non-core businesses to refocus as a pure play provider of heating, cooling and solar energy climate-control products.
Winston Snags Two McDermott Energy Partners
Kevin Brophy and Ming Lei have worked together on a variety of upstream and midstream deals involving EIV Capital and Houston’s Westlawn Group.
FERC Authorization for Two South Texas LNG Projects Halted by Court
Authorizations for the Texas LNG Brownsville and Rio Grande LNG facilities were vacated by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and returned for a second time to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for further environmental scrutiny. The court said FERC was “arbitrary and capricious” in efforts to side-step environmental justice requirements in the approval process.