Paul Weiss Advises Chevron on $53 Billion Stock Purchase of Hess

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison advised Chevron Corp. in its purchase of energy competitor Hess Corp. in an all-stock transaction valued at $53 billion.

The Paul Weiss team includes partner Kyle T. Seifried, counsel Stan Richards and partner Scott A. Barshay, according to the firm. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz advised Hess. Its team was led by partners Martin Lipton, Karessa L. Cain and Zachary Podolsky.

Fried Frank advised Goldman Sachs as lead financial advisor to Hess. Partners Philip Richter and Roy Tannenbaum led the Fried Frank team.

Energy transactions have been a steady performer for law firm mergers and acquisitions practices even as overall deals activity dropped by 14% to $777 billion through third quarter compared with the same period a year ago.

The volume of North American energy deals has remained flat. Chevron bought Denver-based PDC Energy Inc. earlier this year. Davis Polk & Wardwell advised competitor Exxon Mobil Corp. on its all-stock $59.5 billion acquisition of shale rival Pioneer Natural Resources in October.

Boards of both companies approved the Chevron-Hess acquisition, which is expected to close in the first half of 2024, according to a statement from the companies. Hess shareholders and regulators still need to OK the purchase.