In one of the largest timberland conservation transactions in history Anew Climate, a Houston energy credits management firm owned by TPG Rise, announced Wednesday (Nov. 2) the $1.8 billion acquisition of assets managed by The Forestland Group, a package that includes 1.7 million acres of sustainable forests.
The deal was completed by Blue Source Sustainable Forests Company, a joint venture with Oak Hill Advisors. Upon completion, the deal would make Anew the seventh largest private owner of forestlands in the nation.
Kirkland & Ellis and Eversheds Sutherland served as outside counsel for Anew and Blue Source, while Paul Hastings advised Oak Hill Advisors. TFG was advised by Womble Bond Dickinson.
In addition to the acquisition itself, Kirkland advised Blue Source on a capital raise of more than $1 billion to support the transaction.
The Kirkland team advising Blue Source was led from Texas by corporate partners Kevin Crews in Dallas, as well as John D. Furlow and Jennifer Gasser in Houston. and associates Tori Newton, Jack Chadderdon and Cat Leveque; debt finance partners Lucas Spivey and Jordan Roberts and associates Steven Keithley, Chris Gambini and Marco Chan; tax partners David Wheat and Joe Tobias and associate Griffin Peeples; ESG & Impact partner Alex Farmer; environmental transactions partners Jim Dolphin and Jon Kidwell and associate Courtney Tibbetts; executive compensation partner Rob Fowler and associate Karsten Busby; and antitrust partner Carla Hine.
Ram Sunkara in Houston and Victor Haley in Atlanta led the Eversheds team from Houston. They had assistance from partners Joshua L. Belcher, Michael A. Hepburn, M. Hill Jeffries, Daniel R. McKeithen, Lance J. Phillips, Virginia E. Worthy and Scott Wright, counsel Ronnie Dabbasi, Doyle Campbell, Paul R. Hogan, Will Pickens and Laura Taylor, senior attorney Lamine C. Hardaway and associates Cyavash N. Ahmadi, Frank Comparetto III, Kailyn G. Coots, Natalia Cosío Ondiviela, Alexandra N. Franklin, Andi J. Kriha, Angelica H. Li and Robin N. Raasch.
Partner Kfir Abutbul is leading the Paul Hastings team from Houston and New York. The team also includes partners Peter Burke, Chris Carr, Scott Flicker, Lucas Rachuba, Max Rosenberg, and Josh Sternoff; and associates Jared Arcari, Nahal Bahri, Travis Caulfield, Claire Connor, Brady Lambeth, Shilpa Soundararajan and Hailey Ullmann.
Finally, Latham & Watkins advised an undisclosed Blue Source consortium investor in connection with the more than $1 billion capital equity raise. The Latham deal team was led by Houston partner Justin Stolte with associates Denny Lee, Morgen Seim and Greg Sorensen. Advice was also provided on diligence matters by Chicago associate Jamie Friedland; on commercial matters by Orange County counsel Josh Bledsoe and Houston associate Cesar Leyva; on tax matters by New York partner Eli Katz and Houston partner Jim Cole, with associate Christine Mainguy; on finance matters by San Diego partner Omar Nazif and Houston counsel Bryce Kaufman; on insurance matters by Los Angeles partner Drew Levin, with San Diego associate Hannah Cary; on real estate matters by San Diego partner Bob Frances, with associate Aaron Friberg; and on benefits and compensation matters by Washington, D.C. partner Adam Kestenbaum, with Houston counsel Krisa Benskin.
Anew Climate is an ESG-oriented management company that provides advisory services as well as a portfolio of carbon credits, renewable natural gas, renewable energy credits, EV credits, plastic credits and emission reduction credits for ESG offsets aimed at the reduction of carbon footprints by private and public firms.
Oak Hill Advisors is a subsidiary of T. Rowe Price with a prominent presence in Fort Worth.