Claire Poole

V&E advised Energy Transfer and Sidley assisted private equity-backed WTG on the deal, which expands the buyer’s natural gas pipeline and processing network in the Permian Basin.

While the oil and gas business remains the endoskeleton of the Texas economy, oil and gas are currently living divergent performance experiences. Oil is experiencing boom times; natural gas, not so much. In such a market the semi-annual Haynes Boone borrowing base and price deck surveys can offer a valuable lenders’-eye view of the immediate future. The CDT Roundup mines the latest data, along with the usual survey of last week’s Texas-related deals.

Vinson & Elkins counseled Crescent, which counts KKR as a major investor, and Gibson Dunn advised SilverBow on the deal, which builds scale in South Texas’ Eagle Ford shale.

If you happen upon a bank transaction in Texas (or even if it’s not in Texas) there are a couple of lawyers you figure know something about it: Sandy Brown at Alston & Bird in Dallas and Chet Fenimore at Fenimore Kay Harrison in Austin. So, when Texas Dow Employees Credit Union announced its purchase of Sabine State Bank, The Roundup turned to them. Turns out, one of them was involved. CDT notes on that involvement, as well as the work of 87 lawyers who advised on deals last week.

M&A is “slowly on the mend,” according to a new PitchBook report on global M&A activity. But like most statements of fact these days, that may depend on your point of view. In the first three months of 2024, M&A is down from Q4 2023, but that’s okay. That previous quarter contained a few blockbuster deals and set a record valuation for energy M&A. The CDT Roundup this week looks a bit closer at the PitchBook metrics and even closer at the transactions reported last week. There are a few numbers that may surprise you.

In addition to its usual fare, the CDT Roundup this week includes a quarterly accounting of the volume and value of deals Texas firms reported to us during the first 13 weeks of 2024. It turns out we’ve logged a lot of lawyer names. We have that number, too.

The Roundup swings its spotlight in a different direction this week to focus on the fund formation world and a young lawyer to be reckoned with, Simpson Thacher partner Linda Tieh. The Harvard-trained lawyer earned her undergrad degree from the University of Texas, holds bar cards in New York and Texas and finds herself front and center in some of the largest and most complicated deals we cover, including our largest transaction this week. Claire Poole has more on Tieh’s remarkable resume of transactions, as well as the usual summary of last week’s deals.

The McKinney, Texas-based target is expected to expand the Italian cable maker further into North America. O’Melveny, with a group including Dallas attorneys, advised Encore Wire on the deal.