Energy Future Holdings General Counsel Andy Wright is hoping that four times is a charm.
EFH’s bankruptcy reorganization efforts and its attempts to sell Oncor Electric Delivery Company, which is one of its key assets, has meant hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for dozens of corporate law firms. The billable hours continued to mount over the weekend.
EFH, which has been in bankruptcy since April 2014, announced late Sunday that the Dallas energy company has abandoned its $9 billion cash deal with Berkshire Hathaway and opted for a more attractive offer from California-based Sempra Energy.
Sempra agreed to pay $9.45 billion in cash to acquire EFH’s assets, which mainly include the company’s 80 percent ownership of Oncor. With the assumption of debt, the total enterprise value of the transaction is approximately $18.8 billion.
Oncor GC Allen Nye will takeover as Oncor’s new CEO.
Wright turned to Kirkland & Ellis partners Andy Calder and John Pitts in Houston to lead the deal for EFH.
Jones Day partners Alain Dermarkar of Dallas, Corinne Ball of Washington, D.C. and Pat Villareal of Dallas are advising Oncor. Vinson & Elkins is serving as regulatory counsel to Oncor.
Sempra is represented by White & Case, which also last week advised Houston-based Calpine Energy in its sale to Energy Capital Partners. Lazard and Morgan Stanley are acting as financial advisers to Sempra.
The transaction, which needs approval of the federal bankruptcy court and the Texas Public Utility Commission, is expected to close in early 2018.
In 2015, EFH reached a deal to sell Oncor to the Hunts for $18 billion, but the TPUC failed to approve the transaction. Last year, EFH and NextEra Energy made a similar agreement, but the TPUC also killed that deal.
EFH, according to court records, has spent about $500 million in legal fees during the past 40 months.