Meet the Texan who outwitted Henry Kravis, David Bonderman and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and is the big winner in the Energy Future Holdings fiasco.
C. John Wilder not only sold what was then called TXU to the private-equity giants for a very healthy price, but he also made a second fortune in fracking — helping to drive down natural gas prices, which doomed his former company.
Wilder was chair and CEO of TXU in 2007 when he reached a deal to sell his business for $44 billion in the largest leveraged buyout ever to the Wall Street veterans, who renamed the company Energy Future.
The firm filed for bankruptcy Tuesday morning after struggling for years.
KKR saw its $1.8 billion, TPG its $1.5 billion and Goldman its $1.5 billion equity investments nearly wiped out.
Texas state Sen. Troy Fraser, chairman of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, told The Post he saw disaster in TXU’s future at the time of the buyout — because he believed TXU was worth about half what was being paid, or about $25 billion.
At the time of the sale, Fraser thought the acquisition was rushed.
Wilder in 2007 received $46 million in total compensation, including $27 million in severance.
He then founded Bluescape Resources in late 2007. Bluescape bought over 200 leases to create a top 10 land position in the Marcellus region that includes upstate New York. Bluescape has already been very profitable.
Bluescape had two large money-raising events and in a presentation said it was responsible for over $1 billion in value creation.
Wilder then teamed with former Sid Bass investor Clint Carlson to raise a roughly $800 million fund — Parallel Resource Partners — to buy upstream oil and gas assets.
Parallel on its website speaks about buying leases for fracking.
Wilder did not return calls. KKR declined comment.