takeover

ExxonMobil Corp. plans to spend up to 18 months to set its revamped drilling priorities now that the takeover of XTO Energy Inc. is completed, CEO Rex Tillerson said Thursday.

NRG Energy Inc. shareholders last Tuesday reelected all of the company’s director nominees, prompting Exelon Corp. to withdraw its hostile takeover bid for the company as it previously said it would. Shareholders also rejected Exelon’s proposal to expand NRG’s board with its own slate of five director nominees.

After rejecting a $2.8 billion takeover proposal from Enterprise Products Partners LP in April, TEPPCO Partners LP said Monday it has agreed to merge with Enterprise to form the largest publicly traded energy partnership with an enterprise value of more than $26 billion. The stock deal is valued at about $3.3 billion and would create a company similar in size to Kinder Morgan.

Despite NRG Energy Inc.’s repeated rejection of a hostile takeover bid by electricity and natural gas powerhouse Exelon Corp., FERC last Thursday approved the merger of the two utility companies.

TEPPCO Partners LP has turned down a $2.8 billion takeover proposal from Enterprise Products Partners LP but “remains willing to consider a revised proposal that appropriately recognizes the value of TEPPCO,” the company said Wednesday.

TEPPCO Partners LP has turned down a $2.8 billion takeover proposal from Enterprise Products Partners LP but “remains willing to consider a revised proposal that appropriately recognizes the value of TEPPCO,” the company said Wednesday.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given the green light for Calgary-based Suncor Energy Inc.’s friendly takeover of cross-town rival Petro-Canada. Suncor has a refining and gasoline retail business based in Colorado, and Petro-Canada has unconventional natural gas operations in the Lower 48 states. The C$19.6 billion (US$15.5 billion) merger, which would create Canada’s largest energy company, was announced in March (see Daily GPI, March 24). The transaction still requires approval by the Competition Bureau in Canada, and both companies have overlapping retail gasoline operations in Ontario.

Exelon Corp. upped the ante in its $6.36 billion hostile takeover attempt of NRG Energy on Friday by proposing a slate of independent nominees for election to the NRG board of directors at the next NRG annual meeting of shareholders. Exelon said it also proposes to increase the number of NRG directors to 19 from 12.

Often at odds in the past when utility takeover measures regularly appeared on the municipal ballot, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and the City/County of San Francisco Tuesday continued their newfound lovefest, joining hands in a new collaborative effort to deliver energy savings/efficiency programs to residential and commercial customers in the utility’s headquarters city. Running through next year, the three-year San Francisco Energy Watch effort will spend up to $11.5 million to achieve millions more dollars in savings, the utility said.