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Joanne Katsantonis Partner

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Richmond T +1 804 775 1017 F fax +1 804 698 2090
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Joanne served as the firm’s deputy managing partner for development from 2017 until 2023. Prior to this role, she served as chair of the firm’s Energy Industry practice, served on the firm’s Executive Committee and was a member of the firm’s Board of Partners. She has practiced in the Chicago and Brussels offices, and now practices in Richmond, Virginia. She has concentrated her practice in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, energy transactions and financing.

M&A Practice

Joanne devotes a significant portion of her practice to advising purchasers and sellers of business organizations, representing both strategic and financial purchasers. She assists clients in the structuring, financing, negotiation and consummation of business acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, reorganizations, spin-offs, and joint ventures, including leveraged and management-sponsored buyouts. She has been involved in transactions ranging in size from several million dollars to in excess of several billion dollars, and involving diverse industries globally.

Energy Transactions and Finance

Joanne concentrates her practice on energy transactions and financing. She is a key strategic advisor to energy companies of all kinds, from public utilities and independent power producers to financial investors, such as infrastructure funds. Her transaction experience includes large public company mergers, structuring transactions, ensuring protection of pro formas, running auction processes, and negotiating and finalizing commercial transaction documents. She has led transactions involving gas, gathering and storage assets, coal, oil, solar, wind, nuclear and other alternative fuels. She has also advised clients on the commercial aspects of EPC contracts, power purchase agreements and supply contracts. Joanne’s practice also includes financing transactions, including project finance, debt and equity offerings, large syndicated loans and hybrid transactions. She acts as the general corporate advisor to her clients on matters including corporate structuring, governance issues, partnership and joint venture issues, and compliance and risk management advice.

Experience

  • Representation of Dominion Energy in the $14 billion sale, including the assumption of $4.6 billion of debt, of three natural gas distribution companies – The East Ohio Gas Company, Public Service Company of North Carolina, Incorporated, and Questar Gas Company along with Wexpro Company – through three separate definitive agreements to Enbridge.
  • Representation of NiSource Inc. in the $2.16 billion sale of 19.9% minority equity interest in NIPSCO to an affiliate of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners.
  • Representation of NRG Energy, Inc. in the $1.75 billion sale of 44% equity interest in its South Texas Project Electric Generating Station, a 2,645 MW nuclear facility located about 90 miles southwest of Houston in Bay City, Texas, to Constellation Energy Corporation.
  • Representation of Dominion Energy, Inc. in the $8 billion sale, including the assumption of $5.3 billion of existing indebtedness, of the majority of its gas transmission and storage segment assets – including 25% of Cove Point LNG, an LNG export, import and storage facility in Maryland – to an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
  • Representation of Dominion Energy, Inc. in the sale of Questar Pipelines to Southwest Gas Holdings Inc. in a transaction valued at $1.975 billion, including the assumption of $430 million of existing indebtedness.
  • Representation of Dominion Energy, Inc. in its $13.4 billion merger with SCANA Corporation.
  • Representation of an energy company in its $1.23 billion divestiture of interests in two merchant electric generation assets, the 1,240 MW combined-cycle gas turbine in Pennsylvania and the 468 MW combined-cycle gas turbine in Rhode Island, to Starwood Energy Group Global.
  • Representation of Dominion Energy, Inc. in the $4.4 billion acquisition, plus the assumption of debt for an enterprise value of approximately $6 billion, of Questar Corporation.
  • Representation of Dominion Energy, Inc. in the $3.3 billion sale of 50% noncontrolling limited partner interest in Cove Point LNG, LP, a natural gas pipeline and liquefied natural gas terminal located in Lusby, Maryland, to Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
  • Representation of Dominion Energy, Inc. in a $2 billion recapitalization of the company’s Cove Point liquefied natural gas facility in Lusby, Maryland, by an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management.
  • Representation of an energy company in connection with its acquisition of a transmission and storage company for approximately $492.9 million.
  • Representation of Dominion Energy, Inc. in the approximately $340 million sale of the company’s remaining 50% stake in 530 MW Utah solar portfolio to Clearway Energy, Inc., one of the largest renewable energy owners in the US with over 4,700 net MW of installed wind and solar generation projects.
  • Representation of an energy company in its acquisition of a renewable energy developer that specializes in greenfield development of utility scale solar and storage facilities.
  • Representation of Dominion Energy, Inc. in the acquisition of Southern Co.’s 5% stake in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 600-mile pipeline and gas transmission assets which run through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, moving Appalachian Basin gas to Mid-Atlantic markets.
  • Representation of Morgan Stanley in the PEPCO-Exelon merger, including advising on all transactional documents and the fairness opinion.
  • Advised one of the largest fully regulated utility companies in the United States in the company’s separation from its pipeline subsidiary.
  • Representation of a national energy company in its $780 million sale of its Pennsylvania natural gas distribution companies to an affiliate of an infrastructure fund that owns and manages utilities and other infrastructure assets.
  • Representation of the seller in the sale of three gas-fired generation facilities to a private equity group for approximately $685 million.
  • Representation of multiple companies and utilities in all aspects of solar and wind transactions.

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