Richards, Layton & Finger:
Corporate: Donald Bussard and Mark Gentile. Litigation: Srinivas Raju. (All are in Wilmington.) Plains is incorporated in Delaware.
For special committee of board of directors at target McMoRan Exploration Co. ?(New Orleans)
M&A: Michael Aiello and associates Alexander Clavero, Matthew Falcone, A.J. Frey, Sachin Kohli, and Frank Martire. Energy: Rodney Moore and associate Sacha Jamal. Capital markets: Matthew Bloch and associate Andrew Woodworth. Banking: Richard Ginsburg. Tax: Jared Rusman and associate Randell Gartin. Intellectual property: Charan Sandhu. Litigation: Greg Danilow and John Neuwirth. Environmental: Annemargaret Connolly and associate Thomas Goslin. Employee benefits and executive compensation: Amy Rubin and associates Zahava Blumenthal and Eric Schecter. Antitrust: Steven Newborn and counsel Vadim Brusser. Real estate: Samuel Zylberberg and associate Elliot Ganchrow. (All are in New York except for Dallas-based Moore, Jamal, Rusman, and Gartin, and Washington, D.C.–based Connolly, Goslin, Newborn, and Brusser.) Weil bankruptcy partner Michael Walsh had worked with one of the members of the committee on another matter and introduced Aiello to the client.
—David Marcus
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Equity Residential and AvalonBay
Archstone
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. opted to sell Archstone Enterprise LP to Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities Inc. for $6.5 billion on November 26 rather than complete an IPO of the apartment-building REIT , whose 2007 acquisition helped hasten Lehman's downfall the next year.
Equity Residential, the REIT run by Sam Zell, will assume 60 percent of Archstone's assets and liabilities and gain 78 apartment communities, while AvalonBay will pick up 40 percent of the balance sheet and acquire 66 communities. AvalonBay will pay $669 million in cash and $1.9 billion in stock, and Equity Residential will pay $2 billion in cash and about $1.9 billion in stock. The two buyers will also assume $9.5 billion in debt, most of which is held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac . Lehman and the buyers hope to close the deal by the end of March.
Lehman teamed with Tishman Speyer Properties L.P. to pay $22 billion for Archstone at the height of the private equity bubble in 2007. When Lehman went bankrupt the next year, it had to sell a 53 percent stake in Archstone to Bank of America Corporation and Barclays PLC . The Lehman estate bought back those stakes in 2012, which foiled an effort by Zell to acquire control of Archstone by snapping them up.
For acquiror Equity Residential (Chicago)
In-House:
General counsel Bruce Strohm, deputy general counsel James Fiffer, and first vice president–legal Scott Fenster.
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