Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
This week we honor a retiring colleague. She created the Corporate Deal Tracker Roundup seven years ago and has been the pulse of it since. But rest assured, the CDT Roundup has the usual rundown of the deals reported to us last week, along with names of the firms and lawyers behind them.
If anything defines the last few years in Texas M&A, it's energy consolidation. Big bucks are being dropped to own bigger chunks of the Permian, Gulf Coast LNG production and all the pipeline in between. But the emergence of AI is driving a powerful new influence in the form of digital infrastructure, a sector heavy on the need for energy and real estate — both found in abundance in Texas. The CDT Roundup chatted with Simpson partners Breen Haire and Matt Einbinder on ways in which AI is changing their M&A practice, and it's not what you might think. That, and the usual Roundup breakdown of last week's Texas-related transactions.
The rise of the U.S. global LNG export sector is a remarkable one: from essentially zero in 2015 to a position of global leadership in less than a decade. The Texas-Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf Coast has transformed into an epicenter for super-chilled natural gas bound for Europe and Asia. The CDT Roundup this week takes a closer look at a couple of news items that suggest the short-term future could be a bit bumpier than expected. And, as always, there were deals reported last week. We have the firms and the lawyers behind them.
A mostly Houston team from Kirkland & Ellis advised Tulsa-based buyer and A&O Shearman assisted the Scottish target, which would establish H&P as a global leader in onshore drilling.
We've passed the halfway point of 2024, so it seems like a good time to make a periodic check of our own metrics. This week we look at the table that hides in plain sight inside our column and actually use it to measure what we've done; specifically, a statistical survey of the deal summaries we've published so far this year. As usual, the numbers are surprising, even to us; especially the number of names of lawyers that have showed up in the column. And, of course, we include even more names from the deals we received last week.
Deals are deals, unless they turn out not to be. The proposed $4 billion acquisition of Houston-based Mattress Firm by rival Tempur Sealy seemed like a deal. But the Federal Trade Commission last week voted 5-0 to stop the negotiations and sought to do so in a Houston federal court. The FTC complaint contains the usual language about protecting the U.S. consumer, but it also features allegations of retail bullying by Tempur Sealy along with 182-redactions to back that up. A discussion of that, and the usual fare of Texas-related deal summaries and the firms and lawyers involved, is in this week's CDT Roundup.
Even with an economy that seems headed for a soft landing, there are bumps on the runway. And one of the biggest and most obvious bumps to dealmakers is in real estate — especially commercial real estate, which had problems even before Covid sent workers home. The tumble in CRE hasn't reached a crash, but a correction is coming, according to a recent report by PitchBook. The Roundup this week takes a look at the report and its relevance to Texas, where even a surge in employment hasn't managed to fill a growing number of office buildings. Those details and the usual rundown of last week's Texas-related deals.
A policy "pause" in the expansion of LNG exports announced late last month by the Biden Administration came as a shock to many. U.S. LNG exports are not only regarded as strategic help for Western allies following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but a viable climate-friendly alternative to coal. But life in the energy biz is never so simple, especially when it comes to fossil fuels. And this week's CDT Roundup takes a quick look at the factors that seems to have led to the pause, and the potential it could have on Texas M&A. That, and the usual review of last week's Texas-related corporate transactions.
According to a recent report by PitchBook, private equity deals are a mixed bag of late: deal count up a wisp from Q1; deal value down double-digits. Is that terrible? Maybe not. The Roundup looked at the numbers from PitchBook and there are a few surprises and maybe a little perspective; that, along with the usual run-down of the week's M&A deals.
Texas dealmakers don't do pessimism. There's no point. Downtimes provoke creativity. Uptimes demand energy. And even during times of lean money markets, Texas seems to maintain an ample supply of both. As we move past a mediocre first half in 2023, the CDT Roundup looks at sources of optimism for what's coming — with the assistance of a new report from Intralinks. And, course, there are the names of the Texas lawyers behind 18 deals reported last week.
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