Radnor-based pipeline firm acquired for US$ 5.6 billion

Randnor-based PVR Partners, LP., has announced a US$ 5.6 billion deal with Texas-based Regency Energy Partners LP. The combined company will have an estimated value of US$ 15 billion and will retain the Regency name.

The transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014, will be a unit-for-unit deal that includes a one-time case payment for PVR shareholders, estimated at US$ 40 million in the aggregate. Regency will assume a US$ 1.8 billion debt.

The deal almost triples PVR’s estimated value of US$ 2 million just 18 months ago, when it plunged deeper into the natural gas business with the purchase of Chief Gathering LLC’s pipeline system, which services the state’s Marcellus region.

The combined company
The combined company will now control an extensive network of “midstream” pipelines that move natural gas from individual wells to larger interstate lines that transport the fuel throughout the country.

The purchase provides Regency a presence in gas and oil fields in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. PVR provides Regency the entrée it lacked in Pennsylvania, where PVR has trunk lines and compressing facilities in Lycoming, Sullivan, Wyoming, Bradford and Greene Counties.

Regency's Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Bradley said, “This acquisition enhances our overall geographic diversity by providing Regency with a strategic presence in two prolific producing areas, the Marcellus and Utica shales in the Appalachian Basin and the Granite Wash in the mid-continent region."

William H. Shea, Junior President and Chief Executive Officer of PVR, said “We view this transaction as a merger creating a larger, more diversified operating platform that will be highly attractive to investors, customers, creditors and employees.”

Edited from various sources by Hannah Priestley-Eaton

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/18102013/radnor_based_pipeline_firm_acquired_for_us_5_billion/