The initial public offering for Houston-based oil and gas pipeline company Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI) priced today at $2.9 billion (before the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares), representing the largest private equity-backed IPO in U.S. history. The offering is scheduled to close early next week. Attorneys from the Houston, Austin, and Washington, D.C. offices of Andrews Kurth LLP represented underwriters Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital in the record-setting deal.

The Andrews Kurth team negotiating the IPO included Mike O’Leary, Jon Daly, Jesse Myers, Natalie Kurz, Phil Haines and Stephanie Beauvais from the firm’s Corporate/Securities practice group; Tom Ford, Robert McNamara and Alison Chen from the Tax group; Chris Fenelon from the Employee Benefits group; Lisa Shelton from the Environmental group; and Shemin Proctor from the Regulatory group.

“A deal of this magnitude requires a tremendous team effort from everyone involved,” says O’Leary, co-chair of the firm’s Corporate/Securities practice. “The Andrews Kurth lawyers and the attorneys for each of the participants in the offering did a tremendous job.”

Kinder Morgan’s IPO ranks as the second-largest energy industry IPO in American history, and the largest since 1998. The company’s common stock will commence trading on the New York Stock Exchange, regular way, on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 under the symbol KMI.