On May 6, 2021, Vice Chancellor Zurn of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a 200-page decision denying a motion to dismiss in In re Pattern Energy Group Inc. Stockholders Litigation, a class action challenging the $6.1 billion go-private, all-cash sale of Pattern Energy Group Inc. (“Pattern Energy” or the “Company”) to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (“Canada Pension”) [1]. The transaction was narrowly approved by 52% of the Pattern Energy stockholders on March 10, 2020, with both ISS and Glass Lewis recommending stockholders vote against the sale. The sale closed on March 16, 2020.

Despite having many of the traditional hallmarks of a sound sales process—a disinterested and independent special committee authorized to conduct the process, non-conflicted legal and financial advisors counseling the special committee, and multiple viable potential buyers submitting offers—the Court denied a motion to dismiss in light of allegations that the special committee and certain officers running the sales process improperly tilted the playing field in favor of Canada Pension as the preferred choice of Riverstone Pattern Energy Holdings, L.P. (“Riverstone”), a private equity fund that formed Pattern Energy and controlled its upstream supplier of energy projects (“Supplier”). Specifically, Plaintiff alleged that the special committee, Riverstone, Supplier, and certain conflicted Pattern Energy directors and officers breached their fiduciary duties (or aided and abetted such breaches) by prioritizing Riverstone’s interests over the stockholders’, tortiously interfered with stockholders’ prospective economic advantage, and conspired to favor a deal beneficial to Riverstone at the expense of the stockholders. Additionally, the Court found that Corwin cleansing was not available because majority shareholder approval was obtained in part through the affirmative vote of a significant shareholder that was contractually bound, pre-disclosure, to vote in favor of the transaction.

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