Claire Poole

Clearly, spring recess is over. Texas dealmakers were back to work last week, loading 15 deals worth $13.4 billion into their holiday baskets. The Big Deal of the week was the Concho Resources $9.5 billion purchase of RSP Permian. But there were others of interest. Claire Poole has the numbers and names behind the deals in The Texas Lawbook.

Claire Poole left for vacation after writing most of last week’s roundup, and it appears Texas’s deal attorneys followed her. Texas lawyers advised on nine deals worth $4 billion, which was a 44 percent drop in dealflow from the previous week. Some firms still formed some biggies, though. Details here.

Dealmaking in 2017 was confounding: deals were up, but values were down. The deal count hit 735, but total reported value dropped below $400 billion. There are lots of reasons, of course. But maybe the best explanation is the market itself. Claire Poole sums up the year based on the 2017 annual Corporate Deal Tracker tallies exclusively in The Texas Lawbook.

Spring break in parts of Texas is typically pretty slow in the deal-making world, and this past week was no exception. It was also a secretive bunch this past week, with nine transactions out of the 17 not revealing values and several companies not willing to share their deal counsel. Come on, give these poor vacationing lawyers some credit. Claire Poole has the details in her weekly roundup.

Two monster power deals–one involving four years of negotiation– ended quietly last week. So did a tepid week of new deals in Texas. The deals were far-flung and diverse, but at $3.3 billion over 15 transactions, Lone Star billables made us believe that someone was getting ready for Spring Break. Claire Poole bears both the bad news and the sordid details in The Texas Lawbook.

Capital markets activity accounted for the three biggest deals of this past week, and the nature of most of last week’s transactions were energy-heavy, but some other industries also struck deals. Claire Poole has the details on firm involvement all 19 transactions, which included an automotive glass merger, a hospital joint venture dismantling and an investment in a movie/brewhouse chain – something for everyone as February closed out and March began.

Transaction count and value was up from the prior week, when there were 15 transactions worth $5.5 billion. However, there was one less firm and two-thirds fewer attorneys working the deals, which ranged from M&A and capital markets transactions to a private equity fundraising to venture financings, including one in artificial intelligence.

Texas deal attorneys were active this past week, with 17 firms and 157 lawyers working on 23 deals worth $7.1 billion. The deals ranged from mergers to asset divestitures to joint ventures to equity and debt issues to private equity commitments all across the oil and gas spectrum. Claire Poole has the details in her weekly roundup.

Amid the volatility of the financial markets on Tuesday, two billion-dollar deals were announced that involved three different Texas law firms – Baker Botts, Bracewell and V&E. One deal is more certain, the other not so much.