© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Kerry Curry — (August 5) — Winstead represented Houston-based Waste Management Inc. in an M&A deal valued at $1.94 billion — the fifth billion-dollar deal from the regional firm in the past 2 and ½ years.
In the latest deal, Winstead represented Waste Management in the sale of subsidiary Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. to an affiliate of Energy Capital Partners. Wheelabrator owns or operates 17 waste-to-energy facilities and four independent power-producing plants in the U.S. with a combined electric generating capacity of 853 megawatts.
The deal is expected to close toward the end of the year.
M&A deal flow at the firm is reflective of a strong market nationally and statewide, said Mark Johnson, chairman of Winstead’s corporate, securities/mergers & acquisitions practice group.
Unlike at the end of 2012, when there was a frantic nature to M&A deals related to tax code changes, deals today are stronger, he said.
“We have a good steady level of activity across our firm, through all of our cities and through all of our industry segments,” Johnson said. “It’s a good time to be a corporate lawyer.”
The Winstead team representing Waste Management was led by Todd Chen (Houston), and Clyde Parker and TJ Campbell (both of The Woodlands), with the assistance of Paige Castaneda, Greg Krafka, and Michael Pham (all of Houston), and Nick Wittich and Gabe Gutierrez (both of The Woodlands), Sargon Daniel (Dallas) and Olivia Bryant (a paralegal from The Woodlands) from the corporate group.
Melissa Stewart and Erika Larson, both from the Dallas office, assisted from the finance and banking group. Tony Eppert and David Jackson in The Woodlands office assisted from the ERISA/tax group; and Al Axe (Austin), and the Houston attorneys of Rebecca Rentz and Michael Norvell from the environmental group; Steve Schueler and Zach Allie from the labor and employment group; Fred Tuthill from the tax group; and John Arnold from the energy/regulatory group also assisted.
Latham & Watkins represented Energy Capital Partners.
This latest deal proves that Winstead, as a regional firm, can aptly handle billion-dollar M&A deals, Johnson said.
“Many would have you believe that transactions like this can’t be done in Texas — mainly the investment bankers and lawyers in New York — or that they certainly can’t be done by Winstead. This is the shot across the bow to all of those naysayers out there.”
Winstead also represented Waste Management in the acquisition of Greenstar LLC last year in a $400 million-dollar deal.
Winstead has 37 attorneys dedicated to the corporate team. While that may seem small compared to other Texas firms, Johnson said he doesn’t include tax, benefits, structured finance, banking or public finance attorneys in that number.
© 2014 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
If you see any inaccuracy in any article in The Texas Lawbook, please contact us. Our goal is content that is 100% true and accurate. Thank you.