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Alternative investment manager Ares Management Corp. said on Thursday that it has agreed to acquire Houston-based Whitestone REIT for $19 a share, or about $1.7 billion, in cash.
Kirkland is outside legal advisor to Ares and Whitestone's general counsel is Peter Tropoli.
Omar Samji, the Houston-based lawyer whose career in power and renewables spans more than two decades and six law firms, has left Weil for Gibson Dunn, the firm is announcing today.
Another two Dallas partners have joined their former Winston & Strawn colleagues at King & Spalding. Jeff Cole and Brian Jansen were named partners in the finance and restructuring practice group.
The CDT Roundup saw 11 deals reported for the week ended April 4 with a total valuation of nearly $33 billion. The prior week had 13 deals reported with a total value of $10.7 billion, while a year ago at this time there were 19 deals valued at $27.76 billion.
The bulk of the week’s value derives from a $29.1 billion megamerger between two food distribution giants, Sysco and Jetro Restaurant Depot.
But the most interesting may be the much smaller acquisition — finally — of The Container Store by Beyond, Inc., better known by its pre-bankruptcy moniker Bed Bath & Beyond.
That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
An Abu Dhabi investor announced late Tuesday that it is taking a stake in two major natural gas pipelines that operate across and between the Upper Midwest and Canada.
Weil is advising on the deal with a team led from Houston.
O’Melveny & Myers announced this week that veteran capital markets advisor Doug Lionberger has joined the firm from Holland & Knight — the sixth partner to lateral to the firm’s Houston office in the last two years.
ExxonMobil’s shareholders are being asked to cast a vote this May that they may not fully understand. The company’s board has unanimously recommended moving its state of incorporation from New Jersey to Texas, framing the change as a step toward “maximizing shareholder value.” That framing is misleading. What the reincorporation actually does is place ExxonMobil under a body of Texas corporate law that gives the board sweeping authority to restrict shareholder rights at any time, through a simple bylaw amendment, without asking shareholders for permission. Shareholders are being invited to approve a transaction that hands the board the keys to a governance regime that those same shareholders may one day wish they had never unlocked.
Houston food distribution giant Sysco said Monday that it agreed to acquire Jetro Restaurant Depot for $21.6 billion cash and 91.5 million common shares, representing a total enterprise value of about $29.1 billion.
Jennifer Kaplan Schott is Sysco's Chief Legal Officer and Eve McFadden is General Counsel.
Paul Weiss, Jones Day, Wachtell and Latham & Watkins advised on the deal.
The week ended March 28 saw 13 deals with a total reported value of $10.7 billion. The week prior boasted 11 deals valued at $7.5 billion. This time a year ago, there were 21 deals valued at nearly $8.2 billion. We'll choose to reckon stability in those numbers.
Last week's deals had Texas companies in transactions for increased investment in healthcare-related AI platforms, more data centers, and geothermal power development. While Texas lawyers advised on deals for a gas-fired power plant in the West Texas town of Pecos, a mining outfit in Greenland, and a Canadian provider of liquid cooling technologies for AI development.
Minnesota-based Ecolab has agreed to acquire CoolIT Systems, a Calgary-based provider of liquid cooling technologies for AI and high-performance computing, from investment firm KKR for about $4.75 billion cash.
Kirkland & Ellis advised KKR and CoolIT, while Covington & Burling advised Ecolab.
In an early validation of one of the major changes in the Texas Business Organizations Code, a federal judge last week dismissed a derivative stockholder lawsuit aimed at foiling a high-profile policy change at Southwest Airlines.
For the week ended March 21, the CDT Roundup saw 11 deals with a total reported value of about $7.5 billion, mostly attributable to Constellation Energy shedding some PJM assets to LS Power for $5 billion. A Houston energy services company leaped up in the supply chain, acquiring an Irving energy company and 30 turbine delivery slots; a U.K. hyperscaler bought a power company in order to build one of the world's largest AI factories in West Virginia; two blank check companies issued IPOs in search of "disruptive technology companies" and "robotics, electric vehicles, drones, unmanned aerial systems and fintech" firms. That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
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