© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(Jan. 30) – While Wall Street salivated on Friday over the juicy initial public offering of New York’s beloved burger chain, Shake Shack, a group of Texas lawyers were also in triumph over another successful IPO: Dallas-based Hunt Utility Service’s real estate investment trust, InfraREIT Inc.
Shares for InfraREIT’s common stock closed Friday at $26.60 per share, a 15.65 percent surge from the day’s $23 per share opening price. The day’s opening already greatly exceeded InfraREIT’s original expectations of selling between $19 to $21 a share.
InfraREIT, under the ticker HIFR, was expected to generate $483 million, with 20 million shares being sold to the public. The successful InfraREIT and Shake Shack IPOs came on an otherwise discouraging day in the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted by nearly 252 points.
Baker Botts led the InfraREIT’s IPO, with Dallas corporate partner Bill Howell as the lead attorney. Also assisting Howell were Dallas associates Krysta Edwards and Marian Fielding, as well as attorneys from the firm’s New York office.
From Texas, the tax team included Dallas partners Steve Marcus, Josh Mandell and Eric Winwood and Houston associates Zackary Pullin and Kathryn McEvilly. The finance team included Dallas partner Alison Boren.
Hunt’s in-house team on the deal included Hunt Utility General Counsel Ben Nelson, Hunt Utility/InfraREIT GC Greg Imhoff, Hunt Consolidated GC David Hernandez, Hunt Consolidated Vice President of Legal Sharla Frenzel and Hunt Consolidated Assistant GC Chris McBay.
A team of Los Angeles attorneys from Latham & Watkins represented BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, RBC Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley, which served as the joint book-running managers for the offering. The firm also advised UBS Investment Bank, Wells Fargo Securities, Scotiabank/Howard Weil and Societe Generale, which served as senior co-managers in the offering.
Before the IPO, InfraREIT reported $42.4 million in profits in 2013 and assets, including more than 11,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines across Texas.
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