Kirkland Advises Colgate Energy on its Combination With Centennial Resource Development; Creating $7 Billion Delaware Basin Pure-Play
Kirkland & Ellis counseled Colgate Energy Partners III, LLC on entering into an agreement to combine in a merger of equals transaction with Centennial Resource Development, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDEV). The combined company will be the largest pure-play E&P in the Delaware Basin with approximately 181,000 net leasehold acres, 40,000 net royalty acres and total current production of over 130,000 Boe/d. The combined company plans to leverage its high-quality, scaled asset base to drive leading shareholder returns. The transaction value of approximately $3.9 billion is comprised of the following: 269.3 million shares of Centennial stock; $525 million of cash; and the assumption of $1.4 billion of Colgate’s outstanding debt at closing.
The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Sean Wheeler, Debbie Yee, Emily Lichtenheld and Cephas Sekhar; real assets partners Anthony Speier and Chad Smith and associate Will Eiland; tax partners David Wheat and Joe Tobias; environmental transactions partner Jonathan Kidwell; and debt finance partner Rachael Lichman.
