Ashurst is advising Rockhopper Exploration plc on its joint agreement with Premier Oil to farm-in two Desire Petroleum plc oil and gas licences offshore of the Falkland Islands in exchange for Rockhopper and Premier funding Desire's share of the costs of two exploration wells on the licences. Following the farm-in Rockhopper will have increased its share in each of  the licences from £3% and 10% to 24%.

Norton Rose Fulbright advised Oryx Petroleum Corporation Ltd ( Oryx ) on the acquisition of a 30% stake of the new exploration license, Haute Mer B, granted by government of the Republic of Congo.

Oryx has acquired the license alongside Total, Chevron and the National Oil Company of Congo. As part of this acquisition, the consortium has also signed a partnership agreement for the operation and exploitation of the maritime area extending east of Moho Bilondo.

Davis Polk acted as counsel to Westar Energy, Inc. in connection with an SEC-registered offering of 8,000,000 shares of common stock and the concurrent execution of forward sale agreements relating to an equal number of shares. Under the forward sale agreements an affiliate of J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and an affiliate of Wells Fargo Securities, LLC collectively borrowed an aggregate of 8,000,000 shares of Westar Energy Inc.’s common stock from third parties and sold these shares to the underwriters.

Ashurst is advising Terra Firma-backed, Infinis, the UK-based independent generator of renewable power, on the refinancing of its 274MW portfolio of wind farms, with a £296 million senior secured term loan facility and ancillary facilities of approximately £33.5 million.

The proceeds of the senior facility will be used to refinance project finance facilities secured against 14 of Infinis's portfolio of 16 operating onshore wind farms.

Global legal practice, Norton Rose Fulbright is advising Desire Petroleum plc (Desire) on its merger with Falkland Oil & Gas Limited (FOGL).

FOGL’s recommended all-share offer for Desire was announced on 3 October 2013. The offer represents a 45 per cent premium to the 12.25p closing price of Desire’s shares the day before the announcement. The merged company will have a market capitalisation of approximately US$250 million, based on FOGL’s share price immediately before announcement of the transaction.

Skadden is representing NorthWestern Corporation in its $900 million acquisition of 11 hydroelectric facilities and related assets from PPL Montana, LLC, announced on September 26.

Skadden secured the dismissal of a derivative lawsuit against XTO Energy by a trust beneficiary on behalf of a publicly traded royalty trust. The suit alleged that XTO had diverted trust assets by engaging in sham transactions with an affiliate. On September 17, Judge Terry Means of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas dismissed the case, holding that the beneficiary had failed to make a sufficient demand on the trustee before bringing the lawsuit.

The Firm represented PPL Montana, LLC, based in Montana, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation, in an agreement to sell its hydroelectric facilities to NorthWestern Corporation for $900 million.

PPL Corporation, with 2012 revenue of more than $12 billion, is one of the largest companies in the U.S. utility sector. The PPL family of companies delivers electricity and natural gas to about 10 million customers in the United States and the United Kingdom, owns more than 18,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States and sells energy in key U.S. markets.
 

Simpson Thacher recently represented Walter Energy, Inc. in its offering of $450 million aggregate principal amount of 9.500% Senior Secured Notes due 2019.  Walter Energy used the net proceeds of the offering (i) to repurchase and extinguish $250 million of its Term Loan A through a Dutch Auction process and (ii) the remainder for general corporate purposes.  The offering was conducted in reliance on Rule 144A and Regulation S.
 

DLA Piper has advised E.ON Connecting Energies (ECT) on its acquisition of Matrix, the UK market leader in energy management and energy efficiency services for commercial buildings. The transaction, which was exchanged on 6th September 2013 and was subject to Austrian merger clearance, completed on 4 October 2013.

The agreement covers the purchase of 100% of the issued share capital of Green Sky Energy Limited, the parent company of Matrix, from LDC a UK mid-market private equity investment fund, and also Matrix employee and management shareholders.