© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(January 13) – Houston and New Jersey-based private equity firm Ridgewood Energy Corp. on Monday closed its latest private equity fund that was formed to invest in exploration and production of oil projects in the U.S. deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The fund, originally targeted to raise $750 million, reached its hard cap at $1.1 billion and received commitments from 39 institutional investors.
Vinson & Elkins served as Ridgewood’s fund counsel. Two attorneys specializing in private equity and mergers and acquisitions led the V&E team: Dallas partner David Peck and New York partner Robert Seber. Dallas employee benefits partner David D’Alessandro as well as New York associates Zev Wexler and Eliot Cotton also assisted with the transaction.
Ridgewood’s General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Daniel Gulino, was also involved. Gulino served as in-house counsel for several large electric utilities before joining Ridgewood, including GPU, Inc. (now part of First Energy), PPL Resources, Inc. and Alumax, Inc. (now part of Alcoa).
The fund, nicknamed “Fund II,” has already invested in two oil wells. One, the Dantzler Project, was drilled in partnership with Houston-based Noble Energy, Inc. and resulted in an oil discovery.
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