CDT Roundup: 9 Deals, 6 Firms, 67 Lawyers, $18.75B

Finally — well beyond the 2020 half-year mark – there’s a big one to ponder.

Last week began with a bang, with news that Chevron had agreed to buy Houston-based Noble Energy, including its $8 billion debt, for $13 billion. It was big, not just in size, according to some analysts, but what it says about several different stagnant markets.

First, there’s the overall M&A market which suffered its worst 90 days last quarter since the crash of 2008. The Chevron deal may mark the beginning of that next phase of the market cycle: the shakeout. Energy firms with singular focus and marginal balance sheets will end up in the hands of the stronger, better financed and more diversified ­— one way or the other.

Restructuring — whether in or outside the courts — necessarily ends with the sale of assets or equitization of debt. That’s simply the method and purpose of restructuring. And even healthy companies are finding ways to reconfigure the load and/or maturity of their debt obligations.

But besides offering debts and deals, there are opportunities to refocus and diversify that are attractive even to well-heeled, stable organizations. And that’s what some are seeing in the Chevron/Noble Energy deal.

Chevron’s company statements about the deal emphasized the increased geographic diversity the deal would bring. And as GlobalData senior oil and gas analyst Adrian Lara notes, Noble’s 92,000 acres in the Permian Basin is about 40% of what Chevron would have acquired in last year’s failed bid for Anadarko.

But aside from Noble’s established and de-risked assets in the Permian and Denver-Julesburg Basins, the long-term payoff for Chevron may lie in Noble’s global holdings.

“For this particular transaction, it is really the Eastern Mediterranean assets that are the interesting bet in Chevron’s longer-term plans,” Lara writes. “These fields are expected to benefit from increasing natural gas demand in the region and ultimately LNG demand worldwide.”

Of particular interest to Lara is Noble’s interest in the Leviathan natural gas field off the coast of Israel. In late December, Noble announced that it had pulled its first production from Leviathan in less than three years (and $150 million under budget) after its initial investment. Noble then held — and Chevron now holds — a 39% interest in the project. Lara thinks that could be big for Chevron.

“For a company such as Chevron, it is in its nature to manage giant projects such as the Leviathan gas field,” Lara notes. “Phase 1A of the field alone can reach 1.2 bcfd of peak capacity and for subsequent phases a FLNG facility has been considered for optimizing export volumes. A company such as Chevron can definitely accelerate these type of multi-phase developments if needed.”

It may be too early to tell what that might hold for Texas operations like Freeport LNG’s Train 3 liquefication/export facility that went online in May in the middle of the COVID-19 energy price collapse. The Freeport Trains 1-3 are now the seventh largest in the world.

But with Chevron in the game, clearly the forecast is for better times and better prices, even in the near term, once global demand can begin to find traction.

Although there were only nine deals last week, a third of them were valued at more than $1 billion. Those nine deals were worth $18.75 billion, almost 10 times the value of the six transactions reported last week.

The seven M&A/Funding transactions were worth $18.4 billion and the two public offerings were valued at $348 million. There were 67 Texas lawyers billing from six different firms on the deals.

Weekly Corporate Deal Tracker Roundup Stats

A compilation of weekly stats from The Lawbook's CDT Weekly Roundup
(Deal Values in Millions)

Week Ending	Deal Count	Amount	Firms	Lawyers	M&A Count	M&A Value $M	CapM Count	CapM Value $M
09-Nov-24	14	$2,110	12	139	12	$1,410	2	$700
02-Nov-24	12	$52,788	11	107	11	$52,738	1	$50
26-Oct-24	8	$3,160	8	65	7	$3,065	1	$75
19-Oct-24	12	$5,304	11	136	11	$4,554	1	$750
12-Oct-24	17	$8,438	12	150	15	$8,116	2	$322
05-Oct-24	22	$23,181	12	189	15	$19,980	7	$3,201
28-Sep-24	11	$2,356	7	144	7	$53	4	$2,303
21-Sep-24	12	$9,568	10	169	5	$4,101	7	$5,467
14-Sep-24	24	$10,988	12	235	16	$7,175	8	$3,813
7-Sep-24	12	$20,420	16	168	11	$20,307	1	$112.9
31-Aug-24	13	$20,631	9	134	12	$14,775	1	$5,856
24-Aug-24	19	$8,452	21	325	16	$7,102	3	$1,350
17-Aug-24	25	$49,196	16	304	11	$39,386	14	$9,810
10-Aug-24	20	$12,264	15	312	16	$9,794	4	$2,470
03-Aug-24	26	$16,498	16	334	18	$8,137	8	$8,361
27-Jul-24	19	$16,442	21	271	15	$13,838	4	$2,604
20-Jul-24	15	$16,016	14	184	10	$14,232	5	$1,784
13-Jul-24	20	$17,220	14	265	18	$7,146	2	$10,074
6-Jul-24	11	$3,941	11	95	8	$2,650	3	$1,291
29-Jun-24	14	$6,296	15	224	8	$6,296	6	$1,927
22-Jun-24	12	$5,679	8	137	5	$210	7	$5,469
15-Jun-24	13	$9,895	16	214	10	$5,280	3	$4,615
8-Jun-24	19	$23,859	13	239	12	$19,436	7	$4,423
1-Jun-24	12	$34,510	11	147	9	$26,110	3	$8,400
25-May-24	13	$9,684	15	171	10	$4,434	3	$5,250
18-May-24	11	$5,490	11	173	8	$3,129	3	$2,361
11-May-24	22	$14,855	14	227	16	$11,105	6	$3,750
4-May-24	13	$3,139	9	87	10	$1,297	3	$1,842
27-Apr-24	10	$6,684	6	28	10	$6,684	0	0
20-Apr-24	19	$15,989	11	147	9	$5,208	10	$10,781
13-Apr-24	13	$8,952	9	76	10	$1,652	3	$7,300
6-Apr-24	22	$22,616	14	222	14	$13,501	8	$13,116
30-Mar-24	12	$9,286	8	136	8	$4,299	4	$4,987
23-Mar-24	18	$5,451	17	266	16	$4,759	2	$692
16-Mar-24	21	$11,437	13	186	14	$9,316	6	$2,070
9-Mar-24	23	$4,695	21	218	19	$2,723	4	$1,972
2-Mar-24	20	$9,108	19	372	14	$4,558	6	$4,550
24-Feb-24	19	$16,382	12	248	15	$9,507	4	$6,875
17-Feb-24	16	$29,932	15	157	12	$29,216	4	$716
10-Feb-24	25	$10,750	17	196	19	$5,372	6	$5,379
3-Feb-24	12	$8,416	18	125	9	$3,416	3	$5,000
27-Jan-24	9	$8,165	9	87	8	$7,815	1	$800
20-Jan-24	14	$4,084	12	109	12	$3,219	2	$865
13-Jan-24	17	$33,588	12	256	12	$26,765	5	$6,823
6-Jan-24	8	$7,915	8	84	6	$7,265	2	$650
30-Dec-23	17	$14,599	12	99	15	$2,714	2	$11,885
23-Dec-23	23	$4,182	13	219	16	$1,813	7	$2,370
16-Dec-23	13	$16,436	13	280	7	$15,150	5	$1,286
9-Dec-23	26	$14,633.90	17	244	16	$8,095	10	$6,538.90
2-Dec-23	13	$6,720	9	57	12	$6,630	1	$90
25-Nov-23	9	$4,835	9	131	6	$1,785	3	$3,050
18-Nov-23	22	$6,568.70	17	184	14	$4,709.20	8	$1,859.50
11-Nov-23	15	$9,825	13	179	12	$6,581	3	$3,244
4-Nov-23	15	$20,582.50	14	193	12	$19,417.50	3	$1,165
28-Oct-23	18	$68,419.10	18	152	15	$66,646	3	$1,773.10
21-Oct-23	16	$6,755.90	16	165	15	$6,755.90	1	$3
14-Oct-23	14	$67,851.20	13	125	9	$61,998.50	5	$5,852.70
7-Oct-23	17	$6,595.50	13	228	16	$5,995.50	1	$600
30-Sep-23	17	$1,896.45	13	189	14	$806.45	3	$1,090
23-Sep-23	23	$6,432.70	17	230	16	$1,402.80	7	$5,029.90
16-Sep-23	25	$23,226.70	23	353	16	$17,239	9	$5,987.70
9-Sep-23	12	$6,369	8	102	7	$4,311	5	$2,058
2-Sep-23	14	$2,522	6	92	13	$1,322	1	$1,200
26-Aug-23	17	$12,160.25	13	202	15	$6,573.25	2	$5,587.00
19-Aug-23	19	$11,505	13	213	15	$11,255	4	$250
12-Aug-23	19	$9,698.80	13	184	7	$3,270	12	$6,428.80
5-Aug-23	13	$5,201	12	118	12	$5,051	1	$150
29-Jul-23	15	$21,031.60	13	196	11	$18,292.00	4	$2,739.60
22-Jul-23	18	$3,992	12	130	13	$2,808	5	$1,184
15-Jul-23	13	$8,254.95	13	81	13	$8,254.95	0	0
8-Jul-23	16	$5,441.45	12	172	11	$2,443	5	$2,998.45
1-Jul-23	16	$6,872	10	105	12	$5,474	4	$1,398
24-Jun-23	13	$10,914	16	201	10	$7,874	3	$3,040
17-Jun-23	17	$5,880.70	15	151	15	$4,705.70	2	$1,175
10-Jun-23	19	$8,516.10	13	111	16	$6,252.40	3	$2,263.70
June 3 2023	12	$6,104.42	12	138	8	$4,256.92	4	$1,847.50
27-May-23	17	$12,200	10	67	11	$6,165	6	$6,035
20-May-23	11	$22,458.10	8	103	4	$19,455	7	$3,003
13-May-23	12	$7,034	10	101	8	$5,460	4	$1,574
6-May-23	20	$3,297.60	18	196	17	$2,985.60	3	$312
29-Apr-23	23	$3,691.20	18	135	17	$1,969.70	6	$1,721.50
22-Apr-23	16	$5,570	14	104	14	$4,750	2	$1,000
15-Apr-23	12	$23,818.10	9	59	10	$21,618.10	2	$2,200
8-Apr-23	16	$7,949	9	173	9	$5,472	7	$3,477
1-Apr-23	21	$18,676.70	12	175	11	$10,926.70	10	$7,750
25-Mar-23	15	$8,779.50	10	141	5	$2,362	10	$6,416.50
18-Mar-23	7	$14,048.80	6	69	5	$13,345	2	$703.80
11-Mar-23	21	$11,576	16	165	16	$8,131	5	$3,445
4-Mar-23	20	$9,668	11	228	16	$8,209	4	$1,459
25-Feb-23	13	$5,335	13	130	12	$4,235	1	$1,200
18-Feb-23	14	$5,743.70	13	158	8	$898.70	6	$4,845
11-Feb-23	16	$12,088	12	137	12	$9,965	4	$2,123
4-Feb-23	17	$8,066	15	140	13	$5,614	4	$2,452
28-Jan-23	7	$2,180	7	75	5	$1,692.75	2	$488
21-Jan-23	17	$5,768	16	174	12	$1,918	5	$3,850
14-Jan-23	11	$2, 800	10	102	8	$421	3	$2,400
7-Jan-23	18	$8,296	11	167	14	$6,461	3	$1,835
31-Dec-22	14	$2,732	11	99	12	$2,092	2	$640
17-Dec	14	$7,919	13	115	12	$7,419	1	$500
10-Dec-22	14	$10,093	12	88	11	$7,093	3	$3,000
3-Dec-22	26	$12,800.90	11	172	20	$4,141	6	$8,659.90
26-Nov-22	8	$2,266.70	8	5	3	$76	5	$2,190.70
19-Nov-22	21	$2,886	15	212	19	$2,550	2	$336
12-Nov-22	13	$15,093.70	9	81	9	$14,200	4	$893.70
5-Nov-22	25	19,337.20	16	509	22	$8,267.20	3	$11,070
29-Oct-22	15	$7,805.30	9	116	14	$7,180.30	1	$625
22-Oct-22	20	$8,193.50	13	253	13	$5,442	7	$2,751.50
15-Oct-22	9	$3,046.10	9	139	7	$2,588.30	2	$457.80
8-Oct-22	19	$2,011.80	12	114	16	$833.80	3	$1,178
1-Oct-22	23	$5,532.90	16	156	18	$4,952.30	5	$580.60
24-Sep-22	18	$5,194	14	216	15	$4,050	3	$1,144
17-Sep-22	21	$8,352.30	12	320	15	$4,759.60	6	$3,592.70
10-Sep-22	15	$19,853.50	10	126	13	$19,403.60	2	$450
3-Sep-22	9	$2,312	9	62	9	$2,312	0	0
27-Aug-22	16	$30,891.70	10	135	15	$30,666.40	1	227.7
20-Aug-22	12	$1,977	8	152	9	925	3	$1,052
13-Aug-22	18	$8,004.70	11	242	11	$2,844.70	7	$5,160
6-Aug-22	24	$7,948.90	12	240	17	$3,577	7	$4,371.90
30-Jul-22	8	$6,941	9	78	7	$6,839	1	$102
23-Jul-22	11	$801	11	92	10	$801	1	0
16-Jul-22	14	$3,650	10	122	14	$3,650	0	0
9-Jul-22	10	$3,557.70	7	68	9	$3,557.70	1	0
2-Jul-22	18	$8,609.40	13	152	15	$2,754.40	3	$5,855
25-Jun-22	15	$6,142	13	146	9	$2,017	6	$4,125
18-Jun-22	17	$11,890.10	14	228	15	$11,410	2	479.7
11-Jun-22	17	$7,600	12	123	10	$2,300	7	$5,300
4-Jun-22	12	$2,937	10	127	9	$692	3	$2,245
28-May-22	9	$3,197.60	11	86	9	$3,197.60	0	0
21-May-22	14	$7,284.50	12	185	11	$6,609	3	$675.50
14-May-22	11	$306.60	9	80	10	$306.60	1	$225
7-May-22	16	$10,451.75	12	108	12	$1,827	4	$8,624.75
30-Apr-22	16	$2,296.50	16	157	12	$895.50	4	$1,401
23-Apr-22	10	$2,241	11	58	8	$1,641	2	$600
16-Apr-22	11	$6,643	7	156	8	$2,359	3	$4,284
9-Apr-22	17	$4,429	14	184	11	$1,690	6	$2,739
2-Apr-22	13	$1,755	8	84	10	$1,145	3	$610
26-Mar-22	11	$3,205	8	65	6	$200	5	$3,005
19-Mar-22	13	$2,239.17	9	106	13	$2,239.17	0	0
12-Mar-22	18	$12,016	11	239	15	$11,965	2	$51.35
5-Mar-22	17	$6,786	13	137	13	$5,161	4	$1,625
26-Feb-22	12	$5,095	8	149	9	$4,437.50	3	$658
19-Feb-22	17	$22,229	17	174	14	$21,354	3	$875
12-Feb-22	12	$2,344.70	10	73	8	$641.70	4	$1,703
5-Feb-22	11	$2,503	8	99	11	$2,503	0	0
29-Jan-22	11	$3,872	12	101	12	$3,872	0	0
22-Jan-22	13	$5,143.50	10	99	12	$4,842.50	1	$301
15-Jan-22	12	$7,605	9	155	9	$6,480	3	$1,025
8-Jan-22	13	$8,256.20	11	102	13	$8,256.20	0	0
1-Jan-22	9	$1,273.80	6	50	9	$1,273.80	0	0
25-Dec-21	21	$4,734.75	11	176	16	$3,410	5	$1,324.75
18-Dec-21	26	$7,325.20	15	193	18	$3,640.20	8	$3,685.20
11-Dec-21	16	$5,017	10	109	13	$1,417	3	$3,600
4-Dec-21	14	$2,310	8	86	8	$2,310	6	$1,882.05
27-Nov-21	9	$3.460.1	10	101	6	$1,758	3	$1,702.60
20-Nov-21	20	$22,792	15	157	12	$18,864.50	8	$3,928
13-Nov-21	21	$26,729	12	178	13	$11,822	8	$14,907
6-Nov-21	12	$8,303	13	157	10	$6,682	3	$1,621
30-Oct-21	21	$10,368	15	218	15	$9,24.4	6	$1,103.00
23-Oct-21	21	$18.783.1	15	222	11	$12,314	10	$6,468.60
16-Oct-21	15	$3,868	11	118	15	$2,293	2	$1,575
9-Oct-21	20	$8,610	16	175	16	$7,795	4	$815
2-Oct-21	14	$6,250	11	137	10	$5,200	4	$1,050
25-Sep-21	11	$11,460	9	93	7	$10,200	4	$1,250
18-Sep-21	11	$16,603	8	99	8	$15,084	3	$1,519
11-Sep-21	17	$10,653	11	103	13	$8,503	4	$2,150
4-Sep-21	13	$7,222	10	89	11	$6,715	2	$507
28-Aug-21	12	$763	9	63	11	$663	1	$100
21-Aug-21	12	$29,659	7	79	11	$29,579	1	$80
14-Aug-21	22	$17,845	11	199	12	$12,805	10	$5,04
7-Aug-21	17	$13,670	12	139	15	$11,766	2	$1,904
31-Jul-21	21	$8,160	11	134	10	$3,574	10	$4,586
July 24,2021	21	$6,367	11	139	15	$3,712	6	$2,655
17-Jul-21	14	$4,009	11	124	12	$2,015	2	$1,994
10-Jul-21	16	$3,997	13	143	11	$1,597	4	$2,4
3-Jul-21	24	$7,492	13	94	16	$3,769	8	$3,722
26-Jun-21	10	$4,995	7	85	8	$3,847	2	$1,148
19-Jun-21	28	$16,830	8	228	9	$1,861	19	$14,968
12-Jun-21	26	$27,238	15	209	19	$25,602	7	$1,636
5-Jun-21	15	$15,539	13	100	13	$14,709	2	$600
29-May-21	35	$20,279	11	145	28	$18,64	7	$1,639
22-May-21	24	$53,208	14	174	17	$51,047	7	$2,161
15-May-21	18	$10,620	13	220	11	$5,870	7	$4,809
8-May-21	17	$10,400	11	156	15	$8,386	2	$2,500
1-May-21	21	$7,200	16	115	12	$3,808	9	$3,392
24-Apr-21	8	$20,200	9	31	8	$20,200	0	0
17-Apr-21	14	$6,270	8	102	11	$40,180	3	$2,260
10-Apr-21	15	$8,940	13	129	14	$7,990	1	$950
3-Apr-21	18	$19,513	10	151	12	$16,923	6	$2,590
27-Mar-21	27	$13,942	15	244	14	$4,300	13	$9,633.50
20-Mar-21	11	$2,046	4	102	3	$270	8	$1,776
13-Mar-21	15	$3,270	9	109	6	$538	9	$2,732
6-Mar-21	24	$13,617	10	196	13	$10,395	11	$3,222
27-Feb-21	19	$8,105	12	139	15	$4,970	4	$3,135
20-Feb-21	9	$8,820	9	153	8	$8,520	1	$300
13-Feb-21	12	$4,852.60	7	81	7	2,766	5	$2,086.60
6-Feb-21	18	$9,752	13	153	14	$5,222	4	$4,530
30-Jan-21	18	$9,449	9	182	15	$8,753.80	3	$695.30
23-Jan-21	14	$8,150	8	118	6	$4,000	8	$4,150
16-Jan-21	17	$6,783	13	138	11	$2,400	6	$4,382.90
9-Jan-21	22	$6,829	14	135	18	$3,139.30	4	$3,690
2-Jan-21	7	$1,466	7	60	7	$1,466	0	0
26-Dec-20	18	$15,900	12	163	16	$5,300	1	$600
19-Dec-20	18	$9,769	14	110	14	$8,426	4	$1,343
12-Dec-20	10	$7,200	9	100	9	$3,325	1	$3,830
5-Dec-20	15	$4,261	9	122	9	$2,780	6	$1,481
28-Nov-20	19	$7,758	10	110	13	$4,003	6	$3,755
14-Nov-20	14	$864.10	14	157	12	$289.10	2	$575
7-Nov-20	13	$6,332	9	129	9	$2,483.50	4	$3,849
31-Oct-20	10	$3,995.80	8	103	6	$3,231.10	4	$754.70
24-Oct-20	6	$18,100	6	58	5	$17,709	1	$350
17-Oct-20	8	$351.90	5	55	8	$351.90	0	0
10-Oct-20	7	$5,229	3	50	4	$735	3	$4,494
3-Oct-20	14	$21,428	9	173	9	$17,535	5	$3,893
26-Sep-20	10	$12,770	8	93	5	$10,300	5	$2,470
19-Sep-20	14	$8,365	9	101	6	$1,020	8	$7,345
12-Sep-20	6	$4,406	8	59	3	$1,270	3	$3,136
5-Sep-20	11	$5,191	8	117	9	$4,061	2	$1,130
29-Aug-20	11	$2,531	9	94	5	$1,130	6	$1,401
22-Aug-20	18	$6,574	12	140	7	$1,930	11	$4,644
15-Aug-20	13	$4,991	10	97	7	$1,216	6	$3,775
8-Aug-20	12	$32,092	11	112	9	$30,457	3	$1,635
1-Aug-20	7	$5,287	8	76	5	$3,687	2	$1,600
25-Jul-20	9	$18,751	6	67	7	$18,403	2	$348
18-Jul-20	6	$1,982.50	5	50	4	$1,407.50	2	$575
11-Jul-20	11	$565.10	12	75	10	$65.10	1	$500
4-Jul-20	10	$8,889	8	98	9	$8,788	1	$100.30
27-Jun-20	8	$6,874	10	50	5	$4,972.50	3	$2,081.50
20-Jun-20	12	$4,444	9	115	7	$2,829	5	$1,615
13-Jun-20	6	$3,582	4	37	2	$350	4	$3,232
6-Jun-20	11	$3,213.70	8	65	7	$470	4	$2,743.70
30-May-20	8	$7,335	7	48	6	$4,639	2	$2,697
23-May-20	4	$432.40	4	34	3	$432.40	1	0
16-May-20	6	$310	6	34	5	$310	1	0
9-May-20	18	$5,630	16	124	14	$3,180	4	$2,450
2-May-20	15	10,400	10	90	8	$1,900	7	$,8,500
25-Apr-20	8	$3,400	9	36	5	$1,000	3	$2,450
18-Apr-20	19	$9,500	14	92	8	$185.70	11	$9,360
11-Apr-20	12	$6,000	9	40	5	$190	7	$5,800
4-Apr-20	14	$8,200	11	68	10	$2,200	4	$6,000
28-Mar-20	16	$6,500	13	96	10	$3,700	6	$2,800
21-Mar-20	11	$11,910	7	33	7	$2,250	4	$9,960
14-Mar-20	7	809.8	6	34	6	684.8	1	125
7-Mar-20	16	$2,500	15	70	13	$669	3	$1,400
29-Feb-20	13	$15,260	13	128	11	$11,760	2	$3,500
22-Feb-20	12	$3,700	10	92	10	$2,560	2	$1,130
15-Feb-20	16	$1,250	10	84	12	$35	4	$1,222
8-Feb-20	18	$6,080	14	123	14	$2,595	4	$3,485
1-Feb-20	21	$20,900	12	101	14	$17,860	7	$3,060
25-Jan-20	13	$7,430	13	62	12	$6,430	1	$1,000
18-Jan-20	23	$9,580	15	120	19	$6,580	4	$3,000
11-Jan-20	21	$14,200	18	199	16	$1,020	5	$13,200
4-Jan-20	22	$6,400	11	119	16	$3,204	6	$3,245
28-Dec-19	22	$7,150	19	175	18	$6,800	4	$327.40
14-Dec-19	24	$36,300	23	167	19	$9,500	5	$26,800
7-Dec-19	11	$10,400	11	55	7	$1,082	4	$9,370
November 30. 2019	14	$2,450	12	126	12	$1,760	2	$692.50
23-Nov-19	16	$1,995	10	41	11	$615	5	$1,380
16-Nov-19	15	$3,820	13	135	11	$2,500	4	$1,271
9-Nov-19	25	$12,900	17	182	23	$12,200	2	$575
2-Nov-19	10	$2,470	12	61	9	2,450	3	$22
26-Oct-19	12	$5,560	14	70	11	$3,860	1	$1,700
19-Oct-19	8	$6,600	8	138	8	$6,600	0	0
12-Oct-19	19	$4,300	14	55	16	$3,800	3	$500
5-Oct-19	18	$14,500	19	166	15	$11,100	3	$3,400
28-Sep-19	19	$8,100	18	132	18	$7,560	1	$550
21-Sep-19	14	$6,300	16	66	11	$2,160	3	$4,170
14-Sep-19	15	$23,800	12	56	11	$21,250	4	$2,570
7-Sep-19	17	$3,500	15	98	14	$1,900	3	$1,600
31-Aug-19	5	$8,700	6	50	5	$8,700	0	0
24-Aug-19	16	$10,000	14	82	15	$4,250	1	$5,750
16-Aug-19	10	$1,680	5	52	7	$650	3	$950
9-Aug-19	17	$17,700	15	68	14	$3,900	3	$13,800
2-Aug-19	13	$5,760	12	108	13	$5,760	NA	NA
27-Jul-19	11	$7,300	13	76	8	$6,570	3	$730
20-Jul-19	13	$11,800	13	125	11	$5,300	2	$6,500
13-Jul-19	10	$775	7	46	8	$542.50	2	$233
6-Jul-19	7	$2,500	9	85	7	$2,500	0	0
29-Jun-19	23	$8,290	15	154	17	$2,300	6	$5,970
22-Jun-19	17	$10,700	10	139	14	$7,700	3	$3,000
15-Jun-19	11	$13,500	14	160	11	$13,500	NA	NA
8-Jun-19	13	$2,870	17	55	11	$1,570	2	$1,300
1-Jun-19	10	$4,460	11	60	8	$4,140	2	$315
25-May-19	17	$4,360	14	79	14	$3,700	3	$612
18-May-19	22	$9,000	17	150	16	$3,400	6	$5,600
11-May-19	18	$19,800	17	177	15	$18,300	3	$1,500
4-May-19	10	$7,075	6	32	8	$6,900	2	$175
27-Apr-19	15	$3,200	14	117	14	$3,160	1	$40
20-Apr-19	13	$13,500	10	90	9	$12,200	4	$1,300
13-Apr-19	16	$38,900	14	91	14	$37,800	2	$1,100
6-Apr-19	12	$6,870	11	94	10	$6,730	2	$50
30-Mar-19	15	$6,470	12	84	10	$7,91.5	5	$5,677
23-Mar-19	18	$6,450	14	91	14	$5,042	4	$1,408
16-Mar-19	14	$10,180	12	115	11	$8,800	3	$1,300
9-Mar-19	9	$1,800	6	49	8	$1,300	1	$500
2-Mar-19	20	$3,033	16	107	14	$1,817	6	$1,262
23-Feb-19	12	$2,040	8	69	9	$614.60	3	$1,430
16-Feb-19	16	$9,970	18	77	16	$9,970	0	0
9-Feb-19	14	$6,400	10	110	14	$6,400	0	0
2-Feb-19	18	$6,740	15	99	16	$5,720	2	$950
26-Jan-19	13	$2,770	11	67	11	$918.95	2	$1,850
19-Jan-19	15	$3,819	16	76	12	$2,594	3	$1,225
12-Jan-19	18	$7,283	14	92	15	$1,683	3	$5,600
5-Jan-19	10	$529	12	50	10	$529	0	0
22-Dec-18	17	$2,570	13	87	14	$941	3	$1,629
15-Dec-18	10	$2,860	8	26	8	$264	2	$2,600
8-Dec-18	15	$1,819	16	65	12	$552	3	$1,267
1-Dec-18	12	$7,500	10	90	9	$1,200	3	$6,200
28-Nov-18	15	$4,500	11	107	14	$4,000	1	$500
19-Nov-18	18	$6,137	13	98	13	$2,142	5	$3,995
14-Nov-18	18	$9,200	13	152	15	$8,500	3	$694
6-Nov-18	16	$17,300	16	183	14	$16,361	2	$950
29-Oct-18	14	$14,400	18	127	17	$13,800	1	$600
24-Oct-18	13	$6,140	13	126	11	$5,122	2	$1,018
17-Oct-18	18	$18,390	15	125	14	$12,292	4	$6,098
10-Oct-18	29	$3,149	18	104	20	$1,647	9	$819
2-Oct-18	18	$9,300	11	67	14	$7,300	4	$2,000
25-Sep-18	13	$7,000	11	75	10	$6,000	3	$995
18-Sep-18	9	$3,570	7	44	9	$3,570	0	0
11-Sep-18	13	$5,900	10	132	13	$5,900	0	0
7-Sep-18	14	$5,000	15	86	11	$4,000	3	$1,000
29-Aug-18	15	$20,700	14	79	13	$4,700	2	$16,000
20-Aug-18	10	$12,400	11	53	8	$11,380	3	$1,057
14-Aug-18	12	$19,900	12	132	9	$18,889	3	$1,011
7-Aug-18	16	$68,600	11	106	13	$67,259	3	$1,340
31-Jul-18	15	$15,100	15	95	11	$13,060	4	$2,060
23-Jul-18	13	$2,130	15	60	10	$1,804	3	$1,100
17-Jul-18	14	$5,370	17	98	9	$4,310	5	$1,100
9-Jul-18	16	$11,200	15	74	10	$11,080	6	$862
3-Jul-18	13	$7,000	7	81	12	$6,330	1	$750
25-Jun-18	15	$8,800	13	97	9	$4,970	6	$3,930
18-Jun-18	13	$14,200	14	80	7	$221	6	$14,290
11-Jun-18	12	$6,300	8	96	8	$5,910	4	$803
6-Jun-18	13	$14,500	10	88	8	$14,154	5	$579
31-May-18	11	$4,890	10	63	8	$3,240	3	$1,790
22-May-18	15	$20,400	11	63	9	$19,808	6	$885
15-May-18	15	$4,700	15	106	10	$3,900	5	$643
9-May-18	11	$1,400	13	88	9	$1,300	2	$560
1-May-18	8	$14,250	7	88	7	$13,400	1	$450
24-Apr-18	12	$5,300	6	61	11	$4,470	1	$800
17-Apr-18	9	$1,800	10	44	7	$2,330	2	$1,434
11-Apr-18	11	$2,500	8	32	6	$1,690	5	$809
3-Apr-18	15	$13,400	11	121	9	$12,020	6	$1,090
28-Mar-18	10	$4,000	10	92	7	$3,870	3	$215
19-Mar-18	17	$5,800	13	51	10	$590	7	$5,165
12-Mar-18	15	$3,130	11	43	11	$2,360	4	$788
6-Mar-18	19	$5,400	13	116	10	$1,530	9	$4,860
27-Feb-18	20	$6,600	13	69	14	$5,530	6	$1,030
19-Feb-18	15	$5,500	14	111	10	$3,990	6	$1,980
12-Feb-18	23	$10,900	17	157	12	$7,110	11	$3,840
5-Feb-18	16	$8,600	13	100	7	$1,330	9	$7,800
30-Jan-18	11	$12,600	11	68	5	$7,300	6	$4,982
24-Jan-18	19	$9,400	15	129	5	$2,010	14	$7,337
18-Jan-18	10	$6,280	8	49	2	$2,100	8	$4,188
9-Jan-18	12	$16,500	12	92	9	$15,890	3	$475
3-Jan-18	10	$2,500	9	47	8	$2,350	2	$150
27-Dec-17	15	$9,000	15	113	9	$7,568	6	$1,784
18-Dec-17	15	$13,800	16	164	9	$13,010	7	$1,118
11-Dec-17	14	$9,700	10	126	12	$2,940	4	$8,500
4-Dec-17	6	$1,800	6	31	5	$1,510	1	$300
28-Nov-17	7	$3,850	8	76	4	$3,260	3	$285
16-Nov-17	10	$2,700	10	48	6	$1,840	4	$856
8-Nov-17	15	$2,380	17	91	10	$1,860	5	$516
1-Nov-17	12	$4,700	17	94	9	$3,400	4	$1,300
23-Oct-17	15	$10,500	10	67	10	$9,780	4	$1,530
18-Oct-17	6	$2,000		37	3	$225	3	$1,820
10-Oct-17	12	$6,570		100	9	$3,880	3	$3,360
2-Oct-17	8	$3,100	11	19	3	$1,630	5	$1,750
25-Sep-17	8	$4,880	8	79	5	$2,660	5	$2,070
18-Sep-17	9	$4,770			3	$300	6	$4,470
12-Sep-17	11	$4,430			8	$2,030	3	$2,400
1-Sep-17	4	$1,310			3	$317	1	$1,000
23-Aug-17	11	$13,640	9		8	$11,840	3	$1,800

As good as the values were, it still wasn’t the biggest week of the year (we had a $20 billion week in February), but we’ll take it. FYI, in the last week of July 2019 there were 11 deals worth $7.3 billion.

M&A/FUNDING

V&E Advises Noble in $13B Acquisition by Chevron

Chevron Corp. announced July 20 that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Noble Energy for $5 billion. Including Noble’s $8 billion debt load, the deal has a total value of $13 billion.

In the largest M&A deal in the oil patch in 2020 so far, Noble Energy GC Rachel Clingman chose Vinson & Elkins to lead the sale of the Houston-based firm.

A V&E team of 30 lawyers advised from Houston, led by partners Steve Gill and Doug McWilliams. The all-hands-on deck affair included partner Lande Spotswood and associates David Bumgardner, Michael Pascual, Houston Morgan, Josh Blankenship and Ben Sandlin.

Also advising: on tax were partners Lina Dimachkieh and Todd Way and associates Christine Mainguy and Dan Henderson; on compensation and benefits were partner David D’Alessandro and counsel Dario Mendoza and Julia Petty; on labor and employment were partner Tom Wilson and counsel Chris Bacon; on compliance were partner Fry Wernick and senior associate Brian Howard; on capital markets senior associate Jessica Lewis and associates Andrianna Frinzi and Billy Vranish; on antitrust and regulatory matters were partner Hill Wellford and counsel David Smith; oil & gas issues were handled by partner Bryan Loocke, senior associate Joclynn Townsend and associate Cesar Leyva; environmental issues were advised by partner Matt Dobbins and senior associate Jennifer Cornejo; and governance issues advised by partner Michael Holmes.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is advising Chevron.

J.P. Morgan is Noble’s financial advisor and Credit Suisse is advising Chevron.

Antitrust matters were handled by Shearman & Sterling’s Washington D.C. offices.

The pricing was based on Chevron’s July 17 closing price. Under the terms of the agreement, Noble Energy shareholders will receive 0.1191 shares of Chevron for each Noble Energy share.

The deal is Chevron’s first big play since last year’s $34 billion failed bid to buy Anadarko. Chevron lost out to a massive $55 billion counteroffer from Houston’s Occidental Petroleum, including the assumption of $22 billion in Anadarko debt.

Oxy management has since struggled with its own shareholders over the wisdom of the transaction, leading to efforts to shed some of the debt with a proposed spin-off of Anadarko’s pipeline business and a failed of Anadarko’s African assets to the French company Total Energy.

The acquisition of Noble Energy greatly expands Chevron’s upstream portfolio with low-capital, cash-generating offshore assets in Israel, strengthening Chevron’s position in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as its acreage in the DJ Basin and 92,000 largely contiguous and adjacent acres in the Permian Basin.

David Stover, Noble Energy chairman and CED said called the combination with Chevron “a compelling opportunity.”

“Over the last few years, we have made significant progress executing our strategic objectives, including driving capital efficiency gains onshore, advancing our offshore conventional gas developments and significantly reducing our cost structure,” Stover said.

Latham, Baker Botts Advise NRG on $3.6B Direct Energy Deal

NRG, an integrated retail residential power company, has agreed to purchase Houston-based Direct Energy from British multinational Centrica PLC for $3.625 billion in an all cash deal.

Baker Botts and Latham and Watkins advised NRG on the transaction, each with teams led outside Texas.

Latham’s lead team feature lawyers from New York, Chicago, London and Washington D.C. No Texas lawyers were involved.

The Baker Botts group focused on finance and was led from New York by global projects partners Martin Toulouse and Elaine Walsh, with help from Dallas corporate partner Preston Bernhisel and Houston finance partner Rachael Lichman. Jon Nelsen in Austin and special counsel Matt Donnelly in Washington D.C provided tax guidance.

The Direct Energy acquisition broadens NRG’s retail business adding over 3 million customers across 50 states. The transaction provides substantial regional diversity to NRG since 76% of Direct Energy’s residential customers are outside Texas. The transaction will allow the combined company to reduce costs and leverage shared best practices.

The acquisition is expected to generate approximately $740 million in annual run-rate adjusted EBITDA and $300 million in run-rate synergies.

“Direct Energy ’s complementary assets, talented team and excellent customer service make it a natural fit for our portfolio,” said Mauricio Gutierrez, CEO of NRG, which has dual headquarters in Houston and Princeton, N. J.

Direct Energy’s general counsel is Stanford Law grad Thomas Smith, an alumnus of Vinson & Elkins and GC at BG Group before its 2016 combination with Shell. Brian Curci, NRG general counsel, has been with the company since 2007. He’s a graduate of Delaware’s Widener School of Law.

Shearman Advises Celanese on $1.57B Sale of Polyplastics Stake

Dallas-based Celanese Corp. has agreed to sell for $1.575 billion its 45% stake in a joint venture the company has operated with Japan’s Daicel Corporation for the past 56 years.

Celanese is a global corporation specializing in the production of chemicals and plastic products. With the sale of its interest in Polyplastics, the joint venture becomes wholly owned by Daicel, which had held the remaining 55%.

Celanese GC Lynne Puckett tapped Shearman & Sterling to advise Celanese on the sale with a team led from New York by M&A partners George Casey and Heiko Schiwek. There were no Texas lawyers involved in the deal.

Puckett, who joined Celanese in February 2019 from Colfax Corporation is a University of Maryland law grad, a former partner at Hogan Lovells and a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Polyplastics, headquartered in Japan, is a leading supplier, manufacturer and marketer of engineered materials including acetyl copolymer, liquid-crystal polymer and polyphenylene sulfide polymer.

Lori Ryerkerk, Celanese Chairman and CEO said the company plans to use the cash generated to fund other investments.

“We plan to use this opportunity to monetize a historically passive investment and allocate significant capital to higher growth businesses within Celanese. At the conclusion of this joint venture relationship with Daicel, we extend our gratitude for their partnership and collaboration over the past 50-plus years in jointly bringing innovative products to customers and consumers worldwide.”

That said, the Celanese board of directors plans to use $500 million to fund a repurchase of 5% of the company’s outstanding stock. The purchase is part of a program to repatriate 15% of the company’s outstanding shares at a cost estimated at $1.563 billion.

Winston Advises Mosaic Management in Acquisition of Plano Firm

Winston & Strawn said that it advised Mosaic Residential, a management firm specializing in home owners’ associations, in its acquisition of Excel Association Management.

Excel similarly manages HOAs and is headquartered in Plano. Mosaic, a portfolio company of Miramar Equity Partners, is headquartered in Houston. Terms were undisclosed.

The deal was handled for Mosaic by a Dallas-based Winston & Strawn team led by David Lange. The rest of the team included Andrew Betaque and associates Victoria Acuff, Danielle Marr, Matthew Olson and James Waters.

V&E Advises Vitol in Creation of Vencer

Vinson & Elkins said July 20 that it advised Vitol Group in the establishment of Vencer Energy, a new U.S. partnership to invest in U.S. oil and gas properties.

The V&E team was led from Houston by M&A partner James Garrett, who was assisted by tax partner Jason McIntosh in Houston, Shane Tucker in Dallas on compensation and benefits, Houston-based labor and employment partner Sean Becker, senior M&A associate Robert Hughes and Jordan Fossee.

The company named Don Dotson as its president and CEO. Texas Tech grad Dotson comes to Vencer most recently from Houston-based Sable Bay Energy, where he spent two years as president and CEO.

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 1966, Vitol hold energy assets globally, including storage, refining and nearly 7,000 services stations in Northwest Europe, Africa, Australia and Brazil.

Bracewell Advises Houston Endowment on $25M in Funding

Bracewell said on July 22 that it had served as bond and tax counsel regarding a $25 million tax exempt loan to build Houston Endowment’s new headquarters.

Handling bond and tax elements of the loan were partners Cristy Edwards on taxes, R. Todd Greenwalt on government finance and litigation partners Phillip Sampson and Richard Whiteley. Associate Paige Abernathy also worked on the deal. All are based in Houston.

The loan will enable the offices of Houston Endowment to move from their location in a Downtown Houston office building to a newly designed headquarters adjacent to the Buffalo Bayou.

CAPITAL MARKETS

Latham Advises East Resources Acquisition Company in $300M IPO

East Resources Acquisition Company, a SPAC, has priced an IPO of 30,000 units at $10 per share.

The company began trading on the NASDAQ (ERESU) exchange on July 23.

Latham & Watkins represented East Resources Acquisition Company in the offering with a corporate team led by partners Marc Jaffe in Dallas and Ian Schuman in New York, along with Houston partner Ryan Maierson, with Houston associates Dan Harrist, Caroline Ellerbe, and Jessica Sherman. Additional information on tax was provided by attorneys in Washington.

Wells Fargo Securities, LLC is acting as sole book runner for the offering. The Company has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 4,500,000 units at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments

Each unit issued in the offering consists of one share of the Company’s Class A common stock and one-half of one warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of Class A common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share.

After the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, the shares of Class A common stock and warrants are expected to be listed on NASDAQ under the symbols “ERES” and “ERESW. There will be no fractional warrants issued upon separation of the units. Only full warrants will trade.

Winston Advises NexPoint $48M Public Offering

Winston & Strawn represented NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc., a mortgage REIT, in its $48.0 million public offering of series A cumulative redeemable preferred stock.

Partners Charlie Haag and Justin Reinus led the team from Dallas with assistance from Winston’s Chicago office. Associates Steven Franklin, Jon Pevey and Emily Semon.