Southern Union’s plan to take its merger proposal straight toSouthwest Gas shareholders was dismantled Monday, as SouthernUnion’s two court actions intended on delaying the merger betweenSouthwest and Oneok were rejected. Southwest Gas shareholders areexpected to vote in favor of the merger today. Southern Uniondeclined to comment.

Oneok said Southern Union made an attempt last Thursday in aCalifornia state court to obtain a restraining order to halt theSouthwest shareholder meeting. The California judge denied thatmotion. Later in the day, Southern Union attempted to obtainanother restraining order from a federal court in Phoenix to haltthe regulatory approval process for the merger. That attempt alsofailed. In denying the Phoenix federal court restraining order,U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver said she found nothing thatsuggests a crime in the filings presented to her by Southern Union.

The basis for the latest court actions by Southern Union was acomplaint filed in the Phoenix federal court on July 19, in whichit alleges Oneok and others attempted to illegally prevent SouthernUnion’s hostile bid for Southwest Gas.

Watson added that once shareholder approval is received, themerger only needs to pass regulatory hurdles with the CaliforniaPublic Utilities Commission and the Arizona State CorporateCommission. Oneok expects to have all regulatory approvals by lateSeptember and early October.

The defeat of the two court actions may prove to be the finalblow for Southern Union, which has tried to fight theOneok-Southwest merger ever since Southwest decided to acceptOneok’s offer over Southern Union’s offer in late April (See DailyGPI, April 27). Since then, Southern Union has joined existinglawsuits against Southwest and filed their own actions against thepending merger.

Unfortunately for Southern Union, Southwest and Oneok have notbeen deterred. The merger has already received approval from theNevada Public Service Commission and just last week, Oneok filed tohold Southern Union in contempt for violating a federal preliminaryinjunction preventing Southern Union from attempting to influence ashareholder vote on the merger.

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