Williams rejects Enterprise deal
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The US’s largest gas pipeline group, Enterprise Products Partners, recently attempted to buy its smaller rival,Williams Companies, but was rebuffed in its effort to create an $80bn energy transportation giant, people briefed on the negotiations said.
Depsite the rejection, Enterprise Products remains interested in a deal for Williams and may make another offer, the people added. Enterprise Products and Williams declined to comment. Shares in Williams were up 2.5 per cent just after midday in New York trading, giving it a market value of nearly $20bn, write James Fontanella-Khan in New York and Arash Massoudi in London.
The takeover bid came just weeks after a $33bn sale of Williams to another rival, Energy Transfer Partners(ETE), collapsed in June after a bitter court battle. Since then, Oklahoma-based Williams has suffered a series of boardroom upheavals, with six of 13 directors resigning following a failed attempt to oust the company’s chief executive, Alan Armstrong.
Among the directors that stepped down from the Williams board were two activist investors, Keith Meister of Corvex Management and Eric Mandelblatt of Soroban Capital Partners, who are thought to be in favour of the company considering other takeover offers.
Both companies declined to comment.
The structure of the offer made by Enterprise Products, the largest US midstream pipeline company by market value, could not be learned but the people added that it remains interested in a deal for Williams.