Four months after Chevron acquired Noble Energy, it has submitted a non-binding proposal to acquire all the publicly-held common units of Noble Midstream Partners LP (‘NBLX’).
Chevron already owns 62.5% of NBLX, through its acquisition of Noble Energy. It is also the biggest customer of NBLX, with about 60% of revenues generated from Chevron. So the deal is going through, it’s just a question at what price.
Chevron’s proposal was $12.47 per common unit, which meant no premium to the closing price on February 4. NBLX’s price ended up at $13.30 the following day, suggesting the market expects Chevron to sweeten the pot. A year ago, the units were trading at $22 per unit.
This continues the trend of publicly-traded MLP’s being reabsorbed into their former parent companies. Other Houston-area examples in recent years are;
- TC Pipelines LP to be acquired by TC Energy (Dec 20)
- Cheniere Energy Partners LP Holdings taken private by its parent (Sep 19). Note Cheniere Energy Partners LP, a separate entity, is still publicly-traded.
- Spectra Energy, Enbridge Energy Partners and Enbridge Energy Management taken private by Enbridge (Apr 19)
- American Midstream going private (Mar 2019)
- CVR Refining, LP taken private by CVR Energy (Jan 19).
- Boardwalk Pipeline Partners bought out by Loews Corporation (Jul 18)