M&A

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.(PG&E) may begin to implement a precedent-setting plan after California’s State Lands Commission approved a lease extension for the utility’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. The extension would allow the plant to run through the now-targeted shutdown in 2025. PG&E has to file a proposal with the California Public Utilities Commission and convene a conference of interested parties related to settlement reached earlier in June (see Daily GPI,June 21). The State Lands extension was one of five contingencies listed in the settlement agreement.

Call it the marriage that didn’t quite make it to the altar.

Despite a judge’s ruling that could ultimately nix the deal, The Williams Companies Inc. said more than two-thirds of its shareholders voted for the proposed merger with Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE), according to preliminary results.

After a two-day trial, a Delaware judge ruled Friday that Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) could terminate its proposed merger with The Williams Companies Inc.

TransCanada Corp.’s $13 billion plan to acquire Columbia Pipeline Group Inc. (CPG) crossed a major threshold Wednesday as CPG’s shareholders voted to approve the deal.

Privately backed financial firms have close to $1 trillion ready to deploy into the global oil and natural gas sector, with one-quarter now planning acquisitions by year’s end that mostly target North America and the Asia-Pacific, a survey by Ernst & Young has found.

With disputes surrounding the proposed merger between Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) and The Williams Companies Inc. headed to a Delaware courtroom, Williams said the deal would result in significantly fewer commercial synergies between the two companies, but also incented its shareholders to vote for the merger.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday cleared Energy Transfer Equity LP’s (ETE) proposed acquisition of The Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) and specified assets to be divested.

Energy- and power-focused private investment firm Riverstone Holdings LLC has agreed to acquire Pennsylvania-based Talen Energy Corp. and its 16,000 MW of electric generating capacity in eight states across the country in a deal valued at $5.2 billion.