Tia Barancik is a member of Sullivan & Cromwell’s General Practice Group and serves as Co-Head of the Firm’s Power and Utility Group. She has over 35 years of experience advising U.S. and non-U.S. companies, private equity firms and financial investors and institutions on structuring and executing complex strategic M&A, investments, financings and credit transactions, with a particular emphasis on structuring and executing transactions that are subject to regulation and oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state public utility commissions.
Most recently, Ms. Barancik has represented public companies in multi-state regulated utility acquisitions private investors in establishing joint ventures to own and develop energy transition projects and data centers and related energy and infrastructure investments, and financial institutions and private investors with respect to regulatory compliance. Ms. Barancik has continued to advise on energy legislation, regulatory reform efforts and the impact of energy and utility regulation on the conduct of business transactions in the energy industry and wholesale energy markets.
Ms. Barancik’s practice at the Firm focuses on transactions in the energy and regulated utility sector that require an inter-disciplinary approach in which regulatory knowledge and deal know-how are combined. Her recent transactions include:
- Enbridge in its $14 billion acquisition of The East Ohio Gas Company, Questar Gas Company and its related Wexpro companies and Public Service Company of North Carolina from Dominion Energy
- California Resources Corporation in its definitive merger agreement to combine with Aera Energy, LLC in an all-stock transaction valuing Aera at approximately $2.1 billion and its definitive merger agreement to combine with Berry Corporation in an all-stock transaction valuing Berry at approximately $717 million
- Jones Family Office and other individual investors in its formation of a new joint venture with Gate City Energy, an investment vehicle of the Haslam family office, and in connection with the joint venture’s acquisitions of New Athens Generating Company and Millennium Power Company from NorthEast Gas Generation, a company controlled by Beal Bank, as well as other matters
- Oaktree Capital Management in its $700 million purchase of preferred units of Origis USA LLC
- OpenAI on its $1 billion strategic partnership with SB Energy, as part of Stargate, that will support the build out of next-generation artificial intelligence and energy infrastructure in the United States
- Ampliform and the Jones Family Office, as the lead energy investor, alongside Barings, the George Kaiser Family Foundation and others, in a joint venture with Prospect14, a leading solar energy developer, to launch Ampliform, a joint venture that will originate, develop, build, operate and optimize utility-scale solar and solar and storage projects in the United States
- Electrify America in power market transactions
- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in its sale of its 31.6% stake in Puget Holdings to Macquarie Group and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, in its $750 million investment in Essential Utilities, and in its acquisition from Enbridge of interests in North American and German renewable power assets
- Connecticut Water Service in its $1.1 billion acquisition by SJW Group
- G-I Energy Investments LLC in multiple investments in solar energy projects in the U.S. and Puerto Rico
- TerraForm Power and TerraForm Global in their sale to Brookfield Asset Management and in connection with the SunEdison bankruptcy
- Enbridge Inc. in its $43 billion acquisition of Spectra Energy Corp., which included the indirect acquisition of Union Gas, a gas utility company in Chatham, Ontario
- UIL Holdings, Inc., in its completed acquisition by Iberdrola S.A., its attempted acquisition of Philadelphia Gas Works and its completed acquisition of U.S. regulated gas assets from Iberdrola
- Pepco Holdings Inc. in its acquisition by Exelon Corp.
- OMERS Infrastructure Management and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board in their $1.49 billion sale of the Express Pipeline System to Spectra Energy
- Southern Union in its merger with Energy Transfer
- E.ON in its sale of its U.S. regulated holdings to PPL
- Dynegy in its attempts to sell itself to The Blackstone Group and Icahn Enterprises
- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in its acquisition of Puget Energy (as part of a consortium of private investors)
- China Huaneng Group in its acquisition of Tuas Power from Temasek Holding
- Scottish Power in its sale to Iberdrola
- Israel Corp. and DS Constructions in their acquisition of a portfolio of Latin American power companies from Globeleq
- The official committee of unsecured creditors in the Energy Future Holdings Chapter 11 proceedings
Prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Barancik advised E.ON in its acquisitions of gas utility Ruhrgas and British electric utility Powergen; Dominion Resource in its merger with Consolidated Natural Gas; National Grid in its acquisition of New England Electric System; United Water in its sale to Suez; and National Grid in its transmission joint venture with GridAmerica.
Ms. Barancik also advises financial institutions and other wholesale energy market participants regarding energy trading activities and in connection with the acquisition or disposition of energy trading businesses, physical assets and contracts and on specific energy industry and regulatory issues impacting credit decisions.
Ms. Barancik is a frequent speaker and author on topics of interest to energy and utility companies and their shareholders, including most recently the co-author of “Corporate Governance Feature: Shareholder Activism in the Regulated Utility Sector,” The M&A Lawyer (2022). She is recognized by Best Lawyers in America for Energy, by New York Super Lawyers for Mergers & Acquisitions and Energy & Natural Resources and by Chambers Global and Chambers USA as one of the world’s leading energy and natural resource lawyers, with clients noting she is “really commercial” and “very good at guiding clients to practical solutions.”
Prior to joining S&C, Ms. Barancik was a corporate partner of another law firm in New York City.
