Houston-based Penn Virginia Corp. said Monday that it will acquire Eagle Ford Shale assets from Devon Energy Corp. for $205 million in cash.
Penn Virginia’s acquisition of the assets, located in South Texas’s Lavaca County, is anticipated to close by Sept. 30. The company expects the purchase price to be reduced by approximately $15 million to reflect estimated cash flows from the effective date to closing.
Penn Virginia Chief Legal Officer Katie Ryan hired Houston Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partners Justin Stolte and Shalla Prichard to work with her on the transaction. Stolte led the corporate end of the deal, while Prichard handled the financing aspect.
A 2007 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, Ryan began her legal career at Baker Botts. She joined Penn Virginia’s in-house legal department in 2014, and was named the company’s CLO last October, according to her LinkedIn page.
Houston corporate partner Hillary Holmes also played a significant role on the Gibson Dunn deal team, as well as Houston associates David Cias and Matt Savage, and an associate in the firm’s New York office.
Penn Virginia said it would fund the acquisition with a new $150 million committed debt financing and borrowings under the company’s credit facility. The company is also in talks with its bank lending group to further amend and increase its reserve-based credit facility beyond the current borrowing base of $200 million.
In its own statement, Oklahoma City-based Devon said its Eagle Ford sale is a part of a larger $1 billion divestiture program that the company recently announced. The company is also seeking to divest its non-core assets in the Johnson County area of the Barnett Shale.
RBC Richardson Barr acted as Devon’s financial advisor in the transaction.