A group of lawyers from Vinson & Elkins said Thursday that they worked on the initial public offering for one of TPG’s commercial real estate finance outposts.
New York-based TPG RE Finance Trust, a REIT (real estate investment trust), said Monday evening that it priced its IPO at $220 million. The company is offering 11 million shares of common stock at $20 per share. It began trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker, “TRTX.”
Houston corporate partner Ramey Layne co-led the IPO for TRTX with an attorney in the firm’s New York office. The capital markets team also included Houston associate Doug Lionberger. Dallas tax partner Jim Meyer and associate Brian Russell; Dallas executive compensation/benefits partner David D’Alessandro and Houston associate Regina Ibarra; and attorneys from the firm’s Richmond and New York offices also worked on the IPO.
V&E has advised TPG on an array of previous matters, including the Fort Worth private equity firm’s $1.67 billion sale of Nexeo Solutions Holdings last year to WL Ross Holdings and its $1.8 billion purchase of natural gas properties in Wyoming from Encana in 2014. V&E’s work with TPG dates back to the investment firm’s $45 billion acquisition of TXU in 2007.
TPG’s general counsel is Bradford Berenson, who joined the company very recently, in January of this year. Before TPG, Berenson was the vice president and senior counsel for litigation and legal policy for General Electric. He has also worked in the White House Counsel’s office under President George W. Bush from 2001-2003. He was a partner at Sidley Austin before GE.
Lawyers from Sidley’s New York office led the IPO for the underwriters, according to the company’s S-11 document filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission in April. BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo are leading the underwriting group, which also includes Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Barclays. TPG Capital, BD LLC and JMP Securities are acting as co-managers.
The IPO is expected to close next Tuesday. TRTX has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.65 million shares of common stock.