Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
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.
A Delaware bankruptcy judge gave approval Monday for Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings to sell its 80 percent ownership stake in Oncor to Sempra. It was a key hurdle to clear before the Texas Public Utility Commission decides as early as March 8 whether to approve the deal. This article by DBJ reporter Jon Prior has details.
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.
Exclusive new data examining mergers and acquisitions during the past eight years involving Texas-based companies shows that a dramatic shift has taken place in the corporate legal marketplace. Mergermarket shows that 28 of the 40 law firms advising Texas businesses in the most M&A deals from 2010 to 2017 are based outside Texas.
Transactions were all over the map last week involving a major acquisition by a chemical giant, a major oil and gas purchase by a company in pre-packaged bankruptcy, capital funding for a medical device manufacturer and a merger by two companies in the infrastructure business just as the Trump administration announced plans to pump $200 billion into public works projects. Claire Poole has deal details and weekly totals in her CDT Weekly Roundup in The Texas Lawbook.
The Texas corporate legal market is experiencing extraordinary turmoil in 2018 – and the year is only six weeks old. Three large Texas-based corporate law firms are in the final stages of merger negotiations with out-of-state law firms. Five national law firms have either opened or are opening new offices in the state before the end of March. Since Jan. 1, more than 100 business lawyers have quit the law firms in Austin, Dallas and Houston where they have worked for years or even decades to join competitors. The Texas legal market, which has been a hotbed of activity since 2010, is in the midst of a frenzied transformation not witnessed in decades. The Texas Lawbook has details.
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.
Deal count was up by five transactions versus the previous week. But the deal value was down by 31.7 percent over last week’s $12.6 billion--even counting a large October notes issue whose lawyers weren’t revealed until last week. Claire Poole’s weekly Deal Tracker Roundup recounts all the deals, all the details and all the numbers behind them in The Texas Lawbook.
Last week Texas dealmaking continued apace: an energy-related IPO moved forward, two joint ventures were inked, a bankruptcy was filed and oil and gas asset sales continued. In addition, there were fundings of a healthcare company and an oil and gas explorer as well as a private equity firm purchase of an oilfield services company. Does any of this mean that the energy sector has officially turned around? See what Claire Poole has to say in her weekly Deal Tracker Roundup in The Texas Lawbook.
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