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You may remember traditional IPOs — those initial public offerings popular before the market eruption of SPACs. Are they making a comeback? Maybe. A $2 billion IPO announced this week by BKV Corp. may hold a clue to the future. But in any case, BKV's recent acquisition tear makes it worth watching. The CDT Roundup has more on that BKV deal, as well as the names of Texas lawyers who announced deals during a holiday-shortened week.
As financing costs continue to endure at higher levels, no region seems to have been spared a drop in deal value — even when deals continue at an active pace. A recent Mergermarket report notes that even in the southern U.S., often a statistical outlier, the value of mergers and acquisitions are depressed as smaller deals in sectors like technology and communications gain in number. The CDT Roundup has more on the Mergermarket report, naming a few of the big deals that led the quarter — along with a cavalcade of Texas lawyers who reported their involvement in 21 transactions last week.
So much attention has been given to energy and energy transition that it would be easy to overlook other business sectors that make up the Texas M&A market. Take the healthcare sector, for instance. Healthcare has become a new favorite among PE investors, according to PitchBook. This week's Roundup looks at a few of the reasons for that, as well as healthcare stats for Texas. All that, and the usual roster of lawyers involved in last week's Texas-related transactions.
Is the M&A market becoming a competition between "haves" and "have nots?" Maybe so, according to a recently released survey of nationwide dealmakers conducted by Dykema. Nearly two-thirds of respondents expect the U.S. M&A market to improve in the coming year. But for whom? Where companies with record amounts of cash on hand see opportunity, those who operate as borrowers see obstacles. The Roundup has more on the Dykema report, along with more than 500 names of mostly-Texas lawyers who worked on 25 deals reported last week to the Corporate Deal Tracker. It was, in that way, a record-breaking week.
With blank check IPOs and de-SPAC mergers dwindling in number, the third quarter of 2022 may have spelled the most conclusive evidence yet that the SPAC track has peaked as a quick path to public trading for companies that covet a ticker symbol. Blame it on inflation or on the quality of the targets themselves, but according to Pitchbook SPACs have proved themselves unable to sustain the enthusiastic pricing they experienced just a year ago. The CDT Roundup has those details, as well as the names of the firms and Texas lawyers who reported transactions last week.
Energy pricing may have rebounded to heights not seen in years, but that doesn't mean that industry confidence hovers alongside. Haynes Boone's latest borrowing base redetermination survey suggests that both lenders and borrowers expect current bases to remain flat — or even lower. This week's CDT Roundup explores possible reasons for the current state of caution, along with the usual review of last week's deals.
Energy deals are holding their own these days, even if other sectors seem to be slacking. The third quarter topped $16 billion for upstream M&A nationwide, making it the best quarter of the year in that category, according to Enverus. Claire Poole provides some perspective for that market, along with deals for the week in all sectors.
This week's CDT Roundup looks at Rob Little whose twin contributions to this week's deal lineup point up his steady stream of work with CenterOak Partners. They also lend themselves to the diversity of this week's lineup: which includes sectors as varied as biopharmaceuticals and upstream O&G to funeral homes and satellites. Claire Poole has Little's deals along with the usual roll call of lawyers involved in all of last week's action.
With almost two dozen truly diverse deals reported, it could have been difficult to pluck up a narrative thread for the week. But among them were three EV deals — that's right, three — whose transactional histories seemed worth a closer look. The CDT Roundup has that, along with its usual parade of Texas lawyers who counseled on all those deals.
Few lawyers are busier these days than Sameer Mohan at Morgan Lewis. With a couple of deals announced last week, the sheer breadth of his practice is worth pondering. Claire Poole takes a look at a sample of his recent transactions, as part of the usual CDT Roundup of Texas lawyers who announced their own deals last week.
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