CALGARY, ALBERTA–(Marketwired – Jan. 27, 2017) – Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB)(NYSE:ENB) (“Enbridge” or the “Company”) announced today that it has entered into a merger agreement through a wholly-owned subsidiary, whereby it will take private Midcoast Energy Partners LP (“MEP”) by acquiring all of the outstanding publicly-held common units of MEP. Total consideration paid by Enbridge for these units will be approximately US$170 Million.
MEP is the partial owner of Enbridge Energy Partners LP’s (“EEP”) natural gas gathering and processing business. John Whelen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Enbridge commented that, “We believe it is in the interest of all shareholders that these assets be held privately within the Enbridge family of companies at this time. Eliminating a publicly traded vehicle also reduces costs and simplifies our corporate structure.”
A strategic review of EEP is ongoing and is expected to continue through the second quarter of 2017. Mr. Whelen commented that “EEP has highlighted certain initial joint funding actions with Enbridge and further actions under consideration as part of the strategic review. The initial actions announced today and any further actions that may be undertaken in connection with the EEP review are not expected to be material to Enbridge’s previously published financial projections. Enbridge is not planning a buy-in of EEP at this time. It is expected that EEP will remain as a publicly traded limited partnership and not be combined with any other entity in connection with the strategic review.”
Enbridge will continue working closely with EEP on the strategic review. Mr. Whelen commented further that “While EEP’s gas gathering and processing has been impacted by the prolonged commodity downturn, its core liquids pipeline business on the whole is performing very well and in line with our expectations, financially and operationally. In particular, Enbridge’s Mainline performance remains at record levels. Both Enbridge shareholders and EEP unitholders will continue to derive value from these unique and critical infrastructure assets in the near-term and in the years to come.”