June 16, 2011
In a transaction that will create the premier group of integrated midstream companies in the US natural gas industry, Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (“ETE”) and Southern Union Company (“SUG”) have announced a definitive merger agreement under which ETE will acquire Southern Union for approximately $7.9 billion, including $3.7 billion of existing SUG debt. SUG will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of ETE at the closing of the transaction, which is expected in the first quarter of 2012 subject to SUG shareholder approval and regulatory approvals. Latham & Watkins LLP represents Energy Transfer Equity in the transaction with a corporate team led from the firm’s Houston office by partners Bill Finnegan and Sean Wheeler, with partners David Allinson in New York and Mark Gerstein and Timothy FitzSimons in Chicago, and associates Brad Grounds, Enoch Varner, Debbie Yee, Adrian Milton and Al King in Houston and Justin Smith in New York. Advice has also been provided on debt finance by Houston partner Craig Kornreich and New York partner Robert Zuccaro; on antitrust by Washington, D.C. partner Michael Egge; on tax by Houston partner Tim Fenn, and partner David Kahn in Boston and associates Eric Matuszak and Samuel Greenberg in Los Angeles; on employee benefits and compensation by Washington, D.C. partner David Della Rocca and associate Adam Kestenbaum; and on regulatory matters by Washington, D.C. partners Kenneth Simon and Natasha Gianvecchio and associate Rebecca Malcolm.