Article Triggers Wild Trading in Williams and Energy Transfer
By Amey Stone
A New York Times article reporting that Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) is “frantically searching” for a way to extricate itself from its deal to purchase the Williams Cos. (WMB) sparked some wild trading in both companies’ shares Thursday afternoon.
ETE jumped about 7% and WMB fell 10% as traders initially reacted to the report. Then both shares moved the opposite direction by nearly the same amount. Trading was also affected by a spike in crude oil prices around the same time. By late afternoon, both companies were trading with losses near 3%, steeper, but not too far from those of the broader master limited partnership sector.
Hardest hit was one of ETE’s subsidiaries, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), which fell nearly 9% Thursday. Williams Partners (WPZ), a subsidiary of Williams, fell 5%.
Unnamed sourced told the Times that ETE considered offering Williams a $2 billion payment to end the deal.
But the article ultimately concludes that the deal is likely to go forward. Deal terms make it tough for ETE to pull out. Williams shareholders could still vote down the merger.
Keith C. Goddard, chief executive at Capital Advisors told the Times he plans to vote against the merger:
From the minute they announced the deal, everything that they needed to go right for this deal to work hasn’t. It’s all gone the other way. At what point do these directors say, ‘We’re not doing this deal’?
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
