• Environmental Defense Fund and the Leveraged Buyout of TXU

    In 2006, the regional director for Texas’ Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) was on his way to a hearing about permits for new coal plants proposed by Texas electricity provider TXU when he received a call from private equity firm Texas Pacific Group, concerning TXU's plans to build 11 new coal-fired power plants. How could he negotiate with the private equity firm as it pursued the largest recorded leveraged buyout deal? The private equity firm was opposed to acquiring a firm embroiled in a pitched battle with environmentalists, and claimed to be willing to make substantial concessions. However, as an environmental non-government organization, EDF would face significant risks if it elected to work with TXU and private equity firms to facilitate this deal. Should EDF support the buyout, and what concessions should it ask for in return?
    詳細資料
  • TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline: Unfinished Business

    in 2011, the senior management team at TransCanada Corporation in Calgary, Alberta, was stunned by the U.S. Department of State announcement that it was deferring its decision on a presidential permit, which was required for all construction of infrastructure crossing U.S. international borders. The infrastructure in question was the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would create a 2,735-kilometre direct route for Canadian crude from the Alberta oil sands to refineries in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast. Because the pipeline would pass through environmentally sensitive landscapes, especially in the state of Nebraska, non-governmental organizations, climate change activists, citizens, celebrities and federal and state politicians pressured the Obama administration to halt the project. Company executives had initially seen the Keystone XL pipeline as a readily achievable, financially significant and strategically compelling venture but now wondered whether they had missed the indications and opportunities to avoid controversy. Extensive advertising campaigns and intensive lobbying in Washington did not seem to have improved the likelihood of the pipeline’s construction. What could be done now to increase the likelihood of permit approval and bring the Keystone XL pipeline to fruition?
    詳細資料