© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(Jan. 22) – Houston-based Kinder Morgan, Inc. has agreed to purchase oil billionaire Harold Hamm’s midstream company, Enid, Okla.-based Hiland Partners, for $3 billion.
The acquisition will give Kinder Morgan significant access to the Bakken Formation, where Hiland owns crude oil pipelines and gas gathering and processing systems.
For Hamm, the money provides some padding after his controversial divorce with ex-wife Sue Ann Arnall, which cost the Continental Resources CEO nearly $1 billion, as well as the decline of his overall fortune, which Forbes reports is currently half its original size due to plummeting crude oil prices.
Kinder Morgan General Counsel David DeVeau turned to Houston corporate partners Cleland “Cle Dade and Greg Bopp of Bracewell & Giuliani to lead the transaction for Kinder Morgan.
The remainder of the primarily Houston-based Bracewell deal team included partners Jason Jean, Stuart Zisman, Heather Brown, Aaron Roffwarg, Scott Sanders and Timothy Wilkins; associates Elizabeth Behncke, Mona Cannon, Kate Champion and Jessica Edwards; and associates from the firm’s New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C. offices.
In addition to DeVeau, the Kinder Morgan in-house deal team included deputy GCs Adam Forman and J. Curtis Moffatt and assistant GCs Angela Teer and Bill Wolf.
Bracewell, which serves as one of Kinder Morgan’s primary outside counsel, has represented the energy giant in other significant deals over the past few years. The biggest was last August, when Kinder Morgan purchased Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Kinder Morgan Management and El Paso Pipeline Partners for $44 billion. Nearly two years ago, Bracewell represented the company when it acquired Copano Energy for $5 billion. The firm represented Kinder Morgan again in 2012 when it agreed to sell various assets to Tallgrass Energy Partner for $3.3 billion.
In addition to legal counsel, UBS Securities provided a $2 billion bridge financing to Kinder Morgan to aid in the Hiland purchase.
Houston corporate partners Steve Gill and Doug McWilliams of Vinson & Elkins led the deal for Hiland and received assistance from associates Mike Blankenship, Eric Risi, Masha Shmukler, Daniel McEntee, Ali Choate, John Hayes, Robert Wilson, Joseph Lee and Sean Roberts.
Advising Hiland on other aspects of the deal were Houston partners John Lynch, Ryan Carney, Larry Nettles, Sean Becker and associates Jay Seegers and Jason McIntosh; Dallas associates Shane Tucker and Missy Spohn; Austin associate Taylor Holcomb; and Washington, D.C. partner Billy Vigdor and associate Alicia Burns-Wright.
V&E represented Hiland both when it went public in 2005 and when it decided to go private again in 2009.
It is unknown whether Hamm hired his own counsel for the deal.
The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.
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