HOUSTON, March 19, 2007—King & Spalding, a leading international law firm, announced today that it advised Haddington Energy Partners III LP, a Houston-based, energy-focused private equity fund, and its subsidiary, Port Barre Investments, LLC (“PBI”), in connection with a $65 million preferred equity raise and a $185 million project financing ($65 million Term A Loan and $120 million Term B Loan), the proceeds of which will be used to develop, construct and operate the Bobcat gas storage project in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. In the equity transaction, GE Energy Financial Services invested cash to obtain a convertible preferred interest in 50 percent of the equity of PBI. In the debt transaction, RBS Securities led an oversubscribed lender group in placing $185 million of debt for the construction of the facility and assisted in securing the equity investment. The transactions closed on March 6.
The Bobcat gas storage project is an underground salt dome storage project strategically located in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, 45 miles from Henry Hub, the clearing point for NYMEX natural gas futures contracts and the most liquid trading point in the natural gas over-the-counter and cash markets. The Bobcat facility will be developed in phases, with the first phase consisting of two storage caverns totaling 13.75 billion cubic feet of working storage capacity.
The project's location, one and a half miles southwest of Port Barre, Louisiana, provides access to natural gas supplies from offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore in Texas and Louisiana, including the Barnett Shale. Bobcat will interconnect with five major interstate pipelines. These are Florida Gas Transmission Company, Texas Eastern Transmission Corp., Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corp, ANR Pipeline Company and Gulf South Pipeline Company. It will provide gas to key U.S. natural gas consuming markets in the Northeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Florida. Completion of the first storage cavern and commencement of commercial operation are expected in mid-2008.
The King & Spalding legal team on the equity transaction was led by partner Ken Culotta and counsel John Crespo, both of the firm’s Houston office. Partner Todd Holleman, of the Atlanta office, led the financing. Other members of the King & Spalding legal team were the following:
Tax
Jim Lokey (Partner, Atlanta)
Michael Plowgian (Associate, Atlanta)
Antitrust
Peter Todaro (Partner, Washington, D.C.)
Brian Meiners (Associate, Washington, D.C.)
Corporate and Financing
Gayle Berne (Associate, Atlanta)
Jonathan Ayre (Associate, Houston)
Tara Teeter (Associate, Houston)
Regulatory
Lisa Tonery (Partner, New York)
Erik Swenson (Partner, Washington, D.C.)
Tania Perez (Associate, New York)
Construction
Amy Hollis (Counsel, Houston)
Shaw Ottis (Associate, Houston)
About King & Spalding
King & Spalding is an international law firm with more than 800 lawyers in Atlanta, Dubai, Houston, London, New York and Washington, D.C. The firm represents half of the Fortune 100, and in a Corporate Counsel survey in August 2006 was ranked one of the top ten firms representing Fortune 250 companies overall. For additional information, visit www.kslaw.com.
