DALLAS -- One of the largest equity companies mining the energy/convenience-store sector could see the largest deal in its history fall apart, according to a front-page report in the Wall Street Journal.
Energy Transfer Equity LP, the parent company of Energy Transfer Properties, which in turn owns Sunoco LP, is scrambling to restructure or escape a $33 billion deal to buy Williams Cos. as low oil prices spread pain through the energy industry, according to the report. Williams Cos. is primarily a natural-gas-pipeline master limited partnership, a previously burgeoning industry that has hit hard times in recent months.
The deal is one of the largest announced last year and would create a 100,000-mile network of pipelines, but Energy Transfer Energy chairman Kelcy Warren "is suffering from a severe case of buyer’s remorse," according to the report.
He has since made a series of questionable financial moves in an effort to spoil the deal, the report said, even as executives at Williams Cos. seek to close the sale.
The deal, one of the largest announced in 2015, is now in danger of becoming one of the highest-profile corporate casualties of the oil bust, the Wall Street Journal reported. After the deal was announced on Sept. 28, oil prices fell about 40%. Although they have since rebounded, the share prices of both companies are still down by roughly half.
Click here to read the complete WSJ report.
Dallas-based ETE is an MLP that owns the general partner and 100% of the incentive distribution rights (IDRs) of ETP and Sunoco LP. Its family of companies owns and operates approximately 71,000 miles of natural gas, natural-gas liquids, refined products and crude-oil pipelines. ETP is an MLP owning and operating one of the largest and most diversified portfolios of energy assets in the United States.
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