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Caroline Blitzer Phillips
Caroline Blitzer Phillips
Partner — Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity
E: cphillips@velaw.com T: +1.212.237.0251
VCard BIO PDF
Partner — Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity

Caroline Blitzer Phillips

Caroline Blitzer Phillips
New York
T: +1.212.237.0251
F: +1.917.849.5317

The Grace Building
1114 Avenue of the Americas
32nd Floor
New York, NY 10036

E: cphillips@velaw.com
VCard BIO PDF
start quote symbolI’m motivated by working with individuals to help them take their organization to the next level or to help them achieve their organization’s strategic objectives.end quote symbol
Caroline Blitzer Phillips

Caroline Blitzer Phillips advises public and private companies engaged in mergers and acquisitions. In addition, she represents private equity firms with respect to their investments in creating and growing their portfolio companies.

Caroline is also active in advising both corporate investors and private equity firms on the formation of development joint ventures. She has significant experience serving clients throughout the energy and infrastructure industries, including oil and gas exploration and production, transportation and midstream, power, oilfield services, coal, digital infrastructure and renewables and clean energy.

In addition to her client work, Caroline is a co-chair of V&E’s Women’s Initiative in the firm’s New York office. She serves on the board of trustees of the LSU Law John P. Laborde Energy Law Center where she is also an adjunct professor teaching an M&A course.

Experience Highlights

  • Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital, a SPAC, in its $1.1 billion business combination with Swvl, a Dubai-based provider of transformative mass transit and shared mobility solutions

  • Riverstone Holdings in its formation and capitalization of Enviva Holdings, LP, now the world’s largest producer of sustainable wood pellets biomass

  • Enviva Holdings, LP in its formation of two joint ventures with The John Hancock Life Insurance Company for the acquisition and development of wood pellet production and marine export terminal facilities

  • Buckeye Partners in the $1.7 billion acquisition of Bahamas Oil Refining Company, owner of the largest storage terminal facility in the Caribbean, from First Reserve and Vopak

  • A private equity fund in the acquisition of an asphalt terminal and storage company

  • Carlyle Power Partners in its acquisition, through a joint venture with EIG, of the 829 MW Panda Patriot and the 829 MW Panda Liberty power generation facilities in Pennsylvania

  • Morgan Stanley Energy Partners its acquisition of Specialized Desanders, a provider of sand management solutions to the oil and gas industry

  • Warburg Pincus in its line of equity commitments to domestic and international exploration and production companies (Latigo Petroleum, Laredo Petroleum, Canbriam Energy, Kosmos Energy and Broad Oak Energy), as well as in Competitive Power Ventures Holdings, a power industry development and asset manager

  • Riverstone Holdings in the formation of a new independent power producer, Onyx Strategic Investment Management I BV, and acquisition of a fleet of coal and biomass-fired power stations in Europe

  • American Infrastructure MLP Funds in connection with the formation of a joint venture with CenterPoint Partners for the development of the Houbolt Road bridge project in Illinois

  • Enviva Partners, LP in the acquisition of the Waycross, Georgia wood pellet production facility from RWE AG

  • Enviva Holdings, LP in the acquisition of the Greenwood, South Carolina wood pellet production facility from The Navigator Company, S.A.

  • Enviva Wilmington Holdings in the sale of Enviva Port of Wilmington, owner of a deep-water marine terminal, to Enviva Partners

  • A sponsor in the sale of Enviva Pellets Greenwood, owner of a wood pellet production plant in South Carolina, to Enviva Partners

  • Focus Financial Partners in the acquisition of SCS Capital Management, an independent registered investment advisory firm  with $16.5 billion in regulatory assets under management

  • Penn Virginia Resource Partners in its $1 billion acquisition of energy pipeline company Chief Gathering

  • Merchant Banking Division of The Goldman Sachs Group in the acquisition of 300,000 shares of the 12% Redeemable Preferred Stock of McDermott

  • Natural Resource Partners in the sale of its construction aggregates business, VantaCore Partners, to an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners

  • Buckeye Partners in its acquisition of the Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, refined petroleum products terminal from Shell

  • Buckeye Partners in its acquisition of a petroleum products facility and related assets from Chevron

  • Warburg Pincus in its acquisition and subsequent sale of its interest in APT Generation, a portfolio of three electric generating plants

  • Tenaska Capital Management in its acquisition of the New Covert natural gas-fired power generation facility

  • Copano Energy in its acquisition of the Cantera Natural Gas gathering system and the Tri-County Gas gathering system

  • Morgan Stanley Capital Partners in its equity investment in Sterling Investment Holdings, a natural gas gathering and processing company

  • Morgan Stanley Private Equity in its acquisition of the Trinity CO2 pipeline and supply companies

  • American Infrastructure MLP Fund in its equity investments in United Bridge Holdings and StoneMor Partners

  • Windy Cove Energy in the investment by Blackstone Energy Partners and its affiliates to acquire and develop CO2 enhanced oil recovery assets in the United States

  • Trilantic Capital Partners in its partnership with Ward Petroleum Corporation to form a new oil and gas exploration and production company, Ward Energy Partners

  • Pine Brook Road Partners in its line of equity commitment to Nemaha Oil & Gas and Stonegate Production Company, both exploration and production companies

  • Warburg Pincus in its formation of energy fund Sheridan Production Partners

  • Old Ironsides in its line of equity commitment to Crossing Rocks Energy II to acquire, explore and develop upstream assets in the United States

  • Old Ironsides in its equity financing for Caerus Oil and Gas

Credentials

  • Louisiana State University Law Center, J.D., 1996 (Valedictorian; Order of the Coif; Phi Kappa Phi; Articles Editor, Louisiana Law Review)
  • Duke University, A.B. with honors, 1993
  • Judicial clerk to The Honorable Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, 1996–1997
  • Selected to the 500 Leading Dealmakers in America list, Lawdragon, 2021
  • Selected to the BTI M&A Client Service All-Stars list, BTI Consulting, 2021
  • Legal 500 U.S., Private Equity Buyouts, 2013 and 2014
  • Selected to the New York Metro Super Lawyers list, Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019
  • Selected to the New York Metro Rising Stars list, Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011
  • Legal Media Group’s (Euromoney) Rising Star, 2015
  • Board of Trustees: LSU John P. Laborde Energy Law Center
  • Member: Vinson & Elkins’ COVID task force
  • New York
  • Texas
  • Louisiana
  • Faculty, LSU Law Apprenticeship Week, M&A Transactions, 2016, 2021
  • “Defying the Pandemic: Deals in the Time of COVID-19,” Brittany Sakowitz, Caroline Blitzer Phillips and Michael Marek, State Bar of Texas Corporate Counsel Section Newsletter, Fall 2020
  • “Energy Sector COVID-19 Response,” Women Corporate Directors webinar, July 2020 (moderator)
  • “Deconstructing the CARES Act,” Energy Infrastructure Counsel webinar, June 2020 (speaker)
  • “Does the COVID-19 Outbreak Constitute a Material Adverse Effect?” Caroline Blitzer Phillips (March 12, 2020)
  • “Unconventional Views on Energy in 2020,” Citi’s Energy Conference, February 2020 (speaker)
  • 3rd Annual Private Equity and Secondaries Investor Summit, December 4, 2019 (speaker)
  • “Broken Deals: Lessons from Case Studies,” 8th Annual Private Equity US Spring Forum, May 7, 2019 (speaker)
  • “2018 Kayo Women’s Energy & Resources Summit,” June 13, 2018 (speaker)
  • “Representations and Warranties Insurance in Energy M&A: An Old Product Gets a New Look,” V&E Houston Office, April 11, 2018 (panelist)
  • “Energy’s Entrepreneurs: What it Takes to Build a Business and E&P: M&A and Opportunities for Investment,” 2017 Kayo Women’s Energy Investment Conference, June 12, 2017 (speaker)
  • “Delaware Chancery Court Private Arbitration Ruled Unconstitutional,” V&E M&A/Private Equity Update E-communication, September 6, 2012 (author)

News & Insights

Rankings & Awards
Caroline Blitzer Phillips Named a 2021 BTI M&A Client Service All-Star
September 10, 2021
Deals & Cases
Swvl Inc. Announces Business Combination With Queen's Gambit Growth Capital
July 28, 2021
Insight
Paycheck Protection Program: SBA Discontinues Use of Loan Necessity Questionnaire

V&E Emergency Response and Crisis Management Update

Coronavirus: Preparation & Response
July 16, 2021
Deals & Cases
Enviva Partners, LP Announces Accretive Drop-Down Transactions, Underwritten Public Offering
June 3, 2021