© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(May 31) – Kansas City, Missouri-based Great Plains Energy said Tuesday that it is buying Kansas’ largest electric utility, Westar Energy, with a cash and stock purchase worth $12.2 billion.
Texas-based lawyers at Baker Botts and Bracewell worked on the transaction, which includes $3.6 billion in debt.
A primarily East Coast-based team from Bracewell represented Great Plains in the deal. Lawyers from Houston on the deal team included corporate and securities partner William Anderson and employee benefits partner Bruce Jocsz and environmental partner Heather Palmer, as well as associates Glenn Campion, Will Thanheiser and Charlotte Keenan. Austin associate William Simmons also worked on the deal. The remainder of the deal team is based in New York, Connecticut and Washington, D.C.
Baker Botts represented Westar. The firm’s deal team was also primarily New York and Washington, D.C.-based, but included Austin corporate associate Courtney Fore and Houston employee benefits partner Mark Bodron.
After the deal closes, Westar will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Great Plains.
The financial advisors on the deal were Goldman Sachs for Great Plains and Guggenheim Securities for Westar.
West Plains said in the companies’ joint release that it has secured around $8 billion in committed debt financing from Goldman Sachs and a $750 million mandatorily preferred convertible equity commitment from the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System to help finance the acquisition.
Currently, Great Plains and Westar jointly own and operate the Wolf Creek Nuclear Generating Station and the La Cygne and Jeffrey power plants in Kansas.
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