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Deal counts in Texas dropped precipitously in the first quarter of 2019. Although the count was over the much-valued 200 mark, deal values were even worse. The Lawbook's Claire Poole has the exclusive Mergermarket figures.
Occidental Petroleum didn’t go with a Texas lawyer for its $38 billion counter-bid for Anadarko Petroleum Corp., whose board already agreed to a $33 billion purchase by Chevron. The company chose Faiza Saeed, presiding partner at Cravath, whose media and entertainment clients have included Time Warner, Disney and DreamWorks. Still, Saeed is no stranger to the energy industry, as Claire Poole reveals.
Latham & Watkins partner Ryan Maierson has been very, very busy, leading three billion-dollar deals in the last month. The Lawbook's Claire Poole had a chance to talk to him about those deals and what they say about dealmaking right now.
Law firms in Texas are engaged in a fierce battle to represent businesses, private equity funds and banks involved in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures – and an estimated $3 billion in legal fees are at stake.
Although the first half of 2018 saw a flurry of energy IPOs, the decrease in oil and gas prices created a difficult IPO environment for the remainder of the year, and no energy IPOs by Texas-headquartered companies were completed during that time. As it turned out, all 13 of the Texas IPOs registered during 2018 were emerging growth companies. But there were some high points and a few emerging trends, and E. Ramey Layne and his colleagues at V&E discuss them at length.
With major M&A activity reduced to a few blockbuster simplification transactions and IPOs all but dead, the consensus of those on the floor at CERAWeek is that management is leery of deals when major investors have no interest. "We're going through a major period of adjustment," says Credit Suisse banker Osmar Abib. The Lawbook's Claire Poole reports.
Year-to-date, there have been 136 deals valued at $42.58 billion - about the same number of transactions at this time last year but 46 percent less in terms of value ($78.8 billion). Capital markets activity continued to build this past week, with six transactions valued at $1.262 billion versus 14 M&A/private equity/venture capital deals worth $1.771 billion. Texas Lawbook Senior M&A Writer Claire Poole has the inside details.
Lawyers in Texas reported work on 18 percent more transactions last year than in 2017 with $1 billion-plus deals dominating the activity. Claire Poole takes a deep dive into data collected exclusively by The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker.
Houston-based Targa Resources Corp. announced Tuesday that it agreed to sell 45 percent of North Dakota unit Targa Badlands to funds managed by GSO Capital Partners and Blackstone Tactical Opportunities for $1.6 billion in cash. Claire Poole has the details.
Here are the top 50 M&A transactions involving Texas-headquartered companies in 2018 as compiled exclusively for The Texas Lawbook by Mergermarket.
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