Williams rejects takeover bid from Energy Transfer
Published by Elizabeth Corner,
Senior Editor
World Pipelines,
Pipeline giant The Williams Companies on Sunday rejected a US$64 a share all-stock takeover offer from competitor Energy Transfer.
The move comes as Williams works to reconfigure its operations amid pressure from shareholders, and during a consolidation wave among pipeline operators in North America.
After roughly six months of attempts to engage with Williams, Energy Transfer said it was unable to start a friendly dialogue about a merger, forcing it to make an unsolicited bid.
Energy Transfer said it does not foresee any regulatory hurdles to its merger bid, however, the Dallas-based company said its offer is contingent on Williams cancelling a 13 May acquisition of its MLP interest Williams Partners.
Williams Cos. rejected the stock-based takeover offer from pipeline magnate Kelcy Warren and has hired banks to explore alternatives to the offer that it said undervalued the group, according to a statement on Sunday.
Should a deal be done it would rank near the largest in the pipeline industry. The biggest so far is Kinder Morgan Inc.’s consolidation of its partnership assets last year that was valued at US$48.9 billion when announced.
Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner
Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/23062015/williams-rejects-takeover-bid-from-energy-transfer/
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