June.17.2014
A cross-practice team that spanned Orrick's Energy & Infrastructure, Corporate and Banking & Finance groups recently advised Southern Star Central Corp., the parent company of Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline, Inc., an interstate natural gas transportation company, in its $450 million private offering of 5.125% Senior Notes due 2022. Concurrently with the launch of the Notes offering, Southern Star launched a tender offer for its outstanding 6.75% Senior Notes due 2016 and concurrently with the closing of the Notes offering, Southern Star also entered into an amendment and restatement of its current revolving credit facility, and Central entered into a $100 million unsecured term loan facility. The proceeds from the Notes offering and the Central term loan facility were used primarily to repay or redeem the 2016 Notes, repay Southern Star’s current revolving credit facility and make a distribution to its parent company.
Southern Star, headquartered in Owensboro, Kentucky, is an interstate natural gas transportation company in the Midwest and Mid-continent regions of the United States. Southern Star’s pipeline system is composed of approximately 6,000 miles of mainline and branch transmission and storage pipelines located in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. The system serves customers in these seven states, including major metropolitan areas in Kansas and Missouri, which are its main market areas. Southern Star is indirectly owned by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and certain other affiliated investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, Inc.
The Orrick team who advised on these transactions included partners Tara Higgins, Kyle Drefke, Adam Wenner, Bill Haft and John Narducci; special counsel Robert Lawrence; of counsel Stephen Ashley; and associates David Avila, Julie Eum, Genet Berhane, Joseph Lodico, Cory Lankford, Wolfram Pohl and Jason Flaherty.