The US energy boom led to the creation of hundreds of small-cap energy companies, causing many to declare that 2013 would be a year of mergers and acquisitions as the companies would either be absorbed by larger ones, merge to form bigger, more successful ones on their own, or simply fail and disappear.
That trend is still continuing, as demonstrated by the recent acquisition of Inergy L.P. by a fellow pipeline operative, Crestwood Midstream Partners L.P.
The agreement was confirmed on Monday, in which Crestowood Midstream, and its affiliate Crestwood Holdings, will take control of Inergy, and its master limited partnership unit Inergy Midstream, via a complicated series of cash and stock transactions.
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The resulting company will have a value of around $7 billion and will provide pipeline services to some of the largest oil and natural gas drilling fields in the North of America, including the Marcellus, Eagle Ford, and Bakken shale formations; granting it an expected earnings generation of roughly $450 million before tax.
Robert G. Phillips, the chairman and CEO of Crestwood midstream, will retain his positions in the new company. He stated that the deal is viewed "as a merger of equals through which we are creating a larger, more diversified operating platform that will be highly attractive to investors, customers, creditors and employees."
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More