Mollie Duckworth has been a partner at Baker Botts for only 19 months, but she is quickly becoming one of the go-to lawyers for energy companies seeking to raise capital.
A 2005 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Duckworth has been the lead lawyer in seven separate securities offerings during the first seven months of 2015, which was nearly twice as many as any other lawyer in Texas, according to The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker.
The seven securities offerings raised $3.8 billion, including $1.4 billion for Tallgrass Energy in May. She also represented Pittsburgh-based EQT Midstream Partners and EQT GP Holdings in separate securities offerings of $721 million and $714 million.
“This has been an exceptional year for securities offerings,” Duckworth said. “Our team is always working on at least a few offerings, but we were definitely busier than normal during the first half of 2015.”
Duckworth, who offices in Austin, said there have been a larger variety of offerings in 2015 than in previous years.
“In addition to IPOs and follow-on equity offerings, we are also seeing issuers be more creative with the types of securities they are offering and how they reach investors,” she said. “Overnight marketed equity offerings are still the most common type of offering that I see.
“Issuers are typically raising capital to fund acquisitions or upcoming growth projects, although we have also seen issuers access the markets proactively in order to improve their liquidity position so that they can take advantage of opportunities that might come up later in the year,” she said.
While securities offerings have slowed a bit the past two months, Duckworth believes the pace will increase again this fall.
“A number of companies have been waiting for the right time to access the markets and there is likely some pent up demand that we will see play out during the second half of the year,” she said.