By Robert Grattan of the Houston Chronicle
(April 6) – Pipeline giant the Williams Cos. has sued its potential acquirer Energy Transfer over a private equity offering, the company announced Wednesday.
The suit argues that Dallas’ Energy Transfer Equity violated the terms of the $33 billion merger the two companies signed last September by giving its shareholders preferential treatment. Williams is asking the company to unwind the offering.
The suit is the latest crack in a marriage that has been strained by low oil prices. When the deal was signed in September, midstream companies had easier access to capital markets. Since then, both credit and equity markets have tightened, and some investors have grown concerned that stitching together the pipeline networks of Williams and Energy Transfer may not be worth the mountain of debt it would require to consummate the deal.
For more details, read FuelFix’s full story here.