Apollo Global Management, LLC, teamed with Riverstone Holdings LLC and Access Industries, Inc., on a $7.15 billion agreement to buy El Paso Corporation’s oil and gas exploration and production unit on February 26. El Paso had been considering a sale or spin-off of the division before it agreed to sell to Kinder Morgan, Inc., for $38 billion in cash, stock, and assumed debt on October 17 [Big Deals, December 2011]. Both deals are expected to close in the second quarter, and Kinder Morgan will likely use the proceeds of the sale of El Paso’s exploration and production unit to pay down debt incurred in the larger transaction.
El Paso’s sale of its division came two months after Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. led a group of investors that paid $7.2 billion for Samson Investment Company, a privately held company in the oil and gas sector [Big Deals, February].
