© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Two Houston-based companies announced Tuesday that they have entered a nearly $400 million merger agreement that would make Crimson Exploration Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Contango Oil & Gas Company.
Vinson & Elkins is advising Crimson in the merger, with Houston M&A partner Steve Gill as the lead attorney. Other Houston attorneys on the M&A team include partners Jim Prince and Mark Kelly and associates Kai Liekefett, James Garrett, Bobak Fatemizadeh and Kelly Sanderson.
According to Gill, Crimson senior management will lead the combined company. He said the transaction is interesting because it’s a strategic pairing of two independent producers – one primarily an offshore producer, the other primarily an onshore producer.
Kelly and Prince have represented Crimson for corporate, securities and finance matters since 2010.
Other V&E attorneys assisting in the merger include partner David D’Alessandro and associates Missy Spohn, John Grand and Scott Fulford from the Dallas office; counsel Larry Pechacek and partners Sean Becker and John Lynch from the Houston office; and an antitrust partner from the firm’s Washingon, D.C. office.
Lawyers from the Los Angeles and Philadelphia offices of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius are representing Contango in the transaction.
The corporate headquarters of the combined company will remain in Houston. The new independent oil and gas company will have a balanced offshore Gulf of Mexico (“GoM”) and onshore Texas production profile and a deep inventory of high-impact GoM prospects complemented by Crimson’s onshore oil and natural gas liquids-focused, lower-risk, unconventional resource positions in several prolific plays.
The merger is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
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