The cabinet minister’s older sibling, Henry Davey, is a partner at the energy department of leading London Law Firm Herbert Smith and has handled huge deals for the likes of Petrobas, Centrica and EDF.
Henry Davey has also been involved in briefing reports on Feed-in Tariff cuts for solar power and UK electricity market reforms.
Davey is a corporate partner at Herbert Smith, where he leads the oil and gas team and has been involved in advising on multi-million pound deals on behalf of corporations such as Petrobas.
His website biography reads: “Henry has over 20 years’ experience in the international energy industry, where he has advised on mergers and acquisitions.
“His practice encompasses energy mergers and acquisitions including electricity generation, distribution and transmission assets.”
He is also credited for the following deals:
* Macquarie Bank on its acquisition of the Wales & the West Gas Distribution Network from National Grid Transco in the UK for £1.2 billion
* Chevron on its sale of its fuels marketing and aviation businesses in the Caribbean, Central and South America to Vitogaz, S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of RUBIS
* Renewable Energy Holdings on the development of its worldwide renewable projects portfolio
* EDF on the trading contracts relating to the acquisition of British Energy
* Manx Electricity Authority on the world’s first privately financed electricity transmission (interconnector) project, and on the Pulrose power station project and related gas sales and gas transportation project with BGE and related subsea telecoms project
* MidAmerican/Northern Electric on the £1.2 billion swap of its UK electricity and gas supply and metering businesses to Innogy for the acquisition for Yorkshire Electricity’s distribution business.
* Seeboard on the sale of their UK metering business to Invensys
* 12 RECs as participants in the UK electricity industry during and since its privatisation, including advising on electricity market developments and impact on IPPs
* Energy project acquisitions and disposals and power stations for example, the extraction and subsequent sale to Mission of NGC’s pumped storage business, and for bidders for Drax/Fiddlers Ferry/Ferrybridge, oil refineries and storage, offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration interests and producing fields
* OFGEM on the establishment of the UK’s offshore electricity transmission network
* Sojitz on its strategic alliance with Afren
Other clients listed by Herbert Smith include BG Group, BP, Chevron, EDF, ENRC, Essar Group, Gazprom Neft, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui, Rio Tinto, Sojitz and Tata Group.
The law firm, based in the City of London, claims it specialises in the acquisition and disposal of both upstream and downstream assets in the oil, gas and power markets.
A DECC statement said: “In accordance with the requirements of the Ministerial Code, the secretary of state has provided his permanent secretary with a full list of his interests, including details of his brother’s employment as a partner at Herbert Smith LLP, which will be recorded and published in the List of Ministers’ Interests in the usual way.
“Appropriate safeguards are being put in place to avoid any conflicts of interest.”