© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden – (August 10) – Bracewell Giuliani, Baker Botts, Vinson & Elkins and Weil, Gotshal & Manges played key legal advisory roles in Kinder Morgan Inc.’s $44 billion series of acquisitions that energy M&A experts say is the largest oil and gas transaction since Exxon’s 1999 merger with Mobil for $74 billion.
Houston-based Kinder Morgan, which is 24 percent owned by Richard Kinder, is acquiring the assets of three companies, including Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Kinder Morgan Management and El Paso Pipeline Partners, in order to consolidate the properties under one umbrella. Kinder Morgan Inc. will have an estimated enterprise value of $140 billion.
The deal will seal Kinder Morgan’s position as the largest pipeline company in the world and make it the third largest oil and gas company in the U.S.
For full details of the transaction, please visit the website of our partner, the Houston Chronicle, at www.fuelfix.com.
Kinder Morgan General Counsel David DeVeau, a former commercial litigator from Boston, turned to Bracewell and Weil to lead the deal for the acquiring company. The two firms have been KMI’s primary outside counsel for several years and advised Kinder Morgan in its $23 billion purchase of El Paso Corp. in 2012.
Bracewell tax law partner Gregory M. Bopp and corporate and securities partners Gary W. Orloff and R. Daniel Witschey, Jr. are advising KMI. Other Bracewell partners involved include William C. (Cle) Dade, Troy L. Harder, Lance W. Behnke, Heather L. Brown, Mark K. Lewis, William A. (Trey) Wood III, D. Kirk Morgan II, and Manuel Vera.
Most of the Weil lawyers handling the KMI deal are based in New York, although Dallas tax law partner Jared Rusman and associates Lane Morgan and Banks Bruce played significant roles.
Baker Botts corporate law partner Joshua Davidson and a team of a dozen lawyers represent the Audit and Conflicts Committee of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and the Special Committee of Kinder Morgan Management. Davidson has represented KMI’s conflicts committee in two previous transactions and is currently advising the conflicts committee of Williams Partners in its $1.2 billion acquisition of an affiliated business, Williams Energy Canada. www.texaslawbook.net/baker-botts-and-andrews-kurth.
Other Baker Botts lawyers include Houston corporate partner Tull Florey, tax law partners Michael Bresson and Don Lonczak and litigation partners David Sterling and Danny David.
V&E, led by corporate partners Keith Fullenweider, Stephen Gill and Mike Rosenwasser, advised the Conflicts Committee of El Paso Pipeline Partners.
Other V&E partners involved litigation partner Michael Holmes, tax law partner John Lynch, energy regulatory partner Jay Seegers and environmental law partner Larry Nettles.
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