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The new year has arrived with an uptick in O&G deals, typified by this week's sale by Chesapeake of Eagle Ford assets. This week's CDT Roundup takes a look at that deal and discusses the near-term market for similar transactions with one of the lawyers who advised Chesapeake. And as always, there's the CDT review of the week's transactions and the lawyers who advised on them.
Haynes and Boone advised the seller while Locke Lord assisted the buyer.
Maybe you haven't heard of ProFrac; but you probably should. The company's been on an acquisition tear of late, gobbling up producers of pumps and proppants at an eye-popping rate. CDT Roundup has their latest deals — and the lawyers and firms that advised them, along with the usual roster of last week's transactions.
M&A in 2022 was down by a lot, especially in deal value. Post-pandemic 2021 was a record year, so some decline was more than possible. But according to Refinitiv, the 37 percent global decline in deal values from 2021 was, in fact, the worst year-over-year drop in value since 2001. This week's CDT Roundup observes a few other ways in which 2022 stood out, as well as the names of 167 lawyers who helped forge the first deals of 2023.
The Mergermarket year-end polling is out and the results are optimistic. More than 60 percent of decision-maker respondents from 300 corporate and PE firms predict overall increases in M&A, despite the ongoing threat of inflation and continued geopolitical challenges. The CDT Roundup has details of the survey, as well as which markets they are predicting will prosper. As always, there are the names of Texas lawyers who advised on 14 deals reported last week.
Last month Texas Capital Bank closed a $3.4 billion sale of its insurance premium finance unit, BankDirect Capital Finance. At the center of that transaction was Anna Alvarado, general counsel of TCB. In a Q&A with Claire Poole, Alvarado discusses that deal, her views on lawyers in the banking business and the steep trajectory of a work life that began picking grapes.
Houston-based NRG Energy made news last week with their $5.2 billion acquisition Vivint Smart Home Inc. The deal included the assumption of $2.4 billion in debt, and was immediately unpopular with the market, but the company says the deal's expansion of its retail utility product line is worth the price. The CDT Roundup has the lawyers behind that deal, as well as 13 others and a bonus Q&A with Latham partner Ravi Purohit, who has reported several high-profile deals in recent weeks.
You may remember traditional IPOs — those initial public offerings popular before the market eruption of SPACs. Are they making a comeback? Maybe. A $2 billion IPO announced this week by BKV Corp. may hold a clue to the future. But in any case, BKV's recent acquisition tear makes it worth watching. The CDT Roundup has more on that BKV deal, as well as the names of Texas lawyers who announced deals during a holiday-shortened week.
As financing costs continue to endure at higher levels, no region seems to have been spared a drop in deal value — even when deals continue at an active pace. A recent Mergermarket report notes that even in the southern U.S., often a statistical outlier, the value of mergers and acquisitions are depressed as smaller deals in sectors like technology and communications gain in number. The CDT Roundup has more on the Mergermarket report, naming a few of the big deals that led the quarter — along with a cavalcade of Texas lawyers who reported their involvement in 21 transactions last week.
Kirkland advised the buyer and V&E the seller in what is proving to be a dramatic pickup in second-half oil and gas deals.
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