Chad Nichols is a partner in the Houston office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and he is a member of the firm’s Global Finance Practice Group and Business Restructuring and Reorganization Practice. Mr. Nichols structures complex, bespoke special situations and distressed and other debt finance transactions, with a particular focus on the energy industry. He has represented some of the country’s leading private equity, hedge, private credit and direct lending funds, including playing a leading role in some of the most significant energy financings in recent years. He has extensive experience with private equity financings (including portfolio company financings) as well as special situations, distressed and restructuring financings.

Mr. Nichols represents public and private companies, portfolio companies, investment funds and other financial institutions across the energy value chain. He has extensive experience with debtor-in-possession, rescue, exit and other distressed financings, workouts and restructurings. He also advises on working capital arrangements, debt compliance matters and corporate governance issues.

Mr. Nichols handles transactions involving acquisition financing, asset-based lending (including reserve-based lending for oil and gas transactions), cash-flow based lending, debtor-in-possession financing, investment-grade lending, mezzanine financing and subordinated debt financing.

Representative Work

Borrower-Side Representations

• Represented Vine Oil & Gas LP and its wholly owned subsidiary, Vine Oil & Gas Finance Corp., in its private offering of $530 million in aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes.*
• Counseled BlackBrush Texas Star LP in connection with its $675 million senior credit facility.*
• Advised My Alarm Center, a portfolio company of Norwest Venture Partners, in connection with amendments to its senior secured credit facility and mezzanine facility to, among other things, upsize the amount of its existing credit facility to support a series of acquisitions.*
• Represented Pier 1 Imports, Inc. in connection with the amendment of its existing $350 million senior secured revolving credit facility and new $200 million term loan credit agreement.*
• Counseled Woodford Express, a midstream portfolio company of Quantum Energy Partners, in connection with its revolving credit facility used to finance the construction of natural gas gathering, treating and processing facilities.*

Lender-Side Representations

• Represented EIG Global Energy Partners on a $500 million investment into USA Compression Partners, LP in which certain investment funds managed or sub-advised by EIG and other investment vehicles unaffiliated with EIG agreed to purchase an aggregate amount of $500 million of newly established Series A Perpetual Preferred Units and received warrants to purchase up to 15 million Common Units of USA Compression.*
• Counseled EIG Global Energy Partners LLC on its senior secured second lien investment in Rosehill Operating Company, LLC and preferred equity investment in Rosehill Resources Inc.*
• Advised Ares Management, L.P. in connection with its extension of $350 million in second lien term loans to and its receipt of penny warrants in Clayton Williams Energy, Inc.*
• Counseled GSO Capital Partners LP on its first lien credit facility for Warren Resources, consisting of the issuance of $202.5 million new money first lien loans to refinance existing debt and provide for working capital needs and an exchange of $69.6 million of existing unsecured senior notes into approximately $47.2 million of additional first lien loans.*
• Represented EIG Global Energy Partners in its $1 billion investment in Breitburn Energy Partners LP, a publicly traded independent oil and gas master limited partnership, through the purchase of $650 million of senior secured second lien notes and $350 million of perpetual convertible preferred units.*

Workouts, Restructurings and Bankruptcy Refinancings

• Advised Globe Energy Services, an oilfield services company, in connection with its credit facilities.*
• Represented GSO Capital Partners LP, as first lien lender under a $250 million prepetition bank facility, debtor-in-possession (DIP) lender and plan sponsor in connection with prearranged Chapter 11 restructuring of Warren Resources Inc. and its subsidiaries.*
• Advised Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, in refinancing its then existing first lien credit facility, obtaining a new DIP credit facility in connection with its bankruptcy filing and obtaining a new exit credit facility upon emergence from bankruptcy.*
• Counseled Midstates Petroleum Company, Inc., an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, in connection with its $170 million exit facility credit agreement.*
• Represented Quintana Energy Services, LP, an oilfield services company, in connection with its recapitalization consisting of a $40 million second lien term loan provided by investors and the restructuring of its revolving credit facility.*
• Advised SandRidge Energy, Inc., an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, in connection with its $425 million exit facility credit agreement.*

Acquisition Financings

• Counseled Encino Acquisition Partners in obtaining underwritten financing from a syndicate of financial institutions for the proposed $2 billion acquisition of Chesapeake Energy’s Utica Shale oil and gas assets in Ohio.*
• Represented Advent International in connection with the acquisition financing to support its acquisition of NCS Energy Services.*
• Advised American Securities in connection with the acquisition financing to support its acquisition of Metaldyne, LLC from The Carlyle Group.*
• Counseled Apax Partners in connection with the acquisition financing to support its $800 million take private of Quality Distribution, Inc.*
• Represented The Blackstone Group and Sanchez Energy Corporation in their 50/50 partnership, definitive purchase agreement and related financing to acquire Anadarko Petroleum Corporation’s working interest in approximately 318,000 gross operated acres in the Western Eagle Ford for approximately $2.3 billion.*
• Counseled The Blackstone Group in connection with the acquisition financing to support its $2.17 billion acquisition of four Midwest power plants from subsidiaries of American Electric Power.*
• Advised The Blackstone Group and Vine Oil & Gas LP in connection with $1.2 billion of secured financing for their acquisition of the Haynesville assets of SWEPI LP and Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc., affiliates of Royal Dutch Shell plc.*
• Counseled Charterhouse Capital Partners in connection with the acquisition financing to support its €500 million acquisition of Germany-based Armacell Group from Investcorp.*
• Represented Darling Ingredients Inc. in connection with the acquisition financing to support its €1.6 billion acquisition of VION Ingredients.*
• Advised Irving Place Capital in connection with the acquisition financing to support its acquisition of Chromalox, Inc.*
• Counseled KKR and Fleur de Lis Energy, LLC in connection with the acquisition financing to support its acquisition of certain CO enhanced oil recovery properties in the Powder River and Green River Basins of Wyoming from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.*
• Represented The Sterling Group in connection with the acquisition financing to support its acquisitions of ROM Corporation and Specialty Manufacturing, Inc.*
• Advised Sycamore Partners in connection with the acquisition financing to support its $3 billion take private of Belk Department Stores.*
• Counseled Vantiv, Inc. in connection with its new term loan B facility and related amendments to its term loan A facility and asset-based lending (ABL) facility to support its $1.65 billion acquisition of Mercury Payments Systems, LLC from Silver Lake Partners.*
• Advised WL Ross Holding Corp. in connection with the acquisition financing to support its $1.67 billion acquisition of Nexeo Solutions, Inc. from TPG Capital Management LP.*

Mr. Nichols received his Juris Doctor from the Northwestern University School of Law, where he graduated cum laude. He received his Masters in Accounting from the University of Southern California, with honors, and his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Missouri – Columbia, magna cum laude.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Nichols was a partner at a major law firm.

Mr. Nichols is admitted to practice in the State of Texas.

* Includes representations completed prior to joining Gibson Dunn.