Akin Gump Advises Northern Tier Energy’s Conflicts Committee in Merger Agreement with Western Refining

(Houston) – Western Refining, Inc. and Northern Tier Energy LP (NTI) today jointly announced that they have entered into a merger agreement whereby Western Refining will acquire all of NTI’s outstanding common units it does not already own. Akin Gump advised NTI’s conflicts committee in the matter.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, NTI unitholders will receive $15 in cash and 0.2986 of a share of Western Refining common stock for each NTI common unit held. As an alternative to the cash and stock consideration, each NTI unitholder may elect to receive, per NTI unit, either $26.06 in cash or 0.7036 of a share of Western Refining, subject to proration. Upon completion, NTI unitholders are expected to own approximately 15 percent of Western Refining. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2016.

John Goodgame, a partner in Akin Gump’s oil and gas practice, led the team advising NTI. He was joined by the following individuals:

• oil and gas senior counsel Christopher Arntzen and corporate associates Paul Monsour and Michelle Zavislan
• tax partners Thomas Weir and Alison Chen
• antitrust and unfair competition partner Paul Hewitt
• employee benefits counsel Nyron Persaud

Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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