September 12, 2019
Willkie represented Colony Capital, Inc., in connection with the formation of the new joint venture partnership, Alpine Energy Capital, LLC.
On September 10, Equity Group Investments and Colony Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CLNY) announced a new joint venture partnership, Alpine Energy Capital, LLC (formerly known as Colony HB2 Energy, LLC), to provide capital and asset management solutions to the U.S. upstream oil & gas industry. Alpine will enable institutional investors to participate directly at the asset level.
Formed in 2018, Colony HB2 Energy will now rebrand as Alpine, and continue to focus on sourcing, sponsoring and managing investment product solutions that provide more efficient forms of exposure to the asset class.
Willkie also represented the Alpine platform in its first material investment, the recently closed $500 million DrillCo financing with California Resources Corporation (NYSE: CRC), the largest oil & gas exploration and production company in California pursuant to which Alpine has committed $320 million in the first tranche of this joint venture that will be used to develop approximately 275 wells at CRC’s flagship Elk Hills field. In November 2018, Willkie represented Colony in its formation of Colony HB2 Energy.
Alpine is headquartered in Houston, Texas and led by the management team of HB2 Energy, including Chairman Craig Perry and Chief Investment Officer Bill Wicker.
Colony Capital, Inc. is a leading global investment management firm with assets under management of $55 billion. Colony has significant holdings in the healthcare, industrial, hospitality property and energy sectors, as well as interests in Colony Credit Real Estate, Inc. and NorthStar Realty Europe Corp, which are both externally managed subsidiaries of Colony. Equity Group Investments is the private investment firm of Sam Zell. Based in Chicago, EGI invests across industries and geographies and throughout the capital structure, including current portfolio investments in transportation and logistics, energy, waste and infrastructure, healthcare, insurance and real estate.
The Willkie deal team was led by partners Michael Piazza and Adam Turteltaub and included partner Robert Jacobson and associates Warren Knull and Will Thanheiser.
