Energy Transfer Equity, L.P.announced recently the full syndication of the $3.7 billion acquisition financing provided by Credit Suisse to finance the previously announced acquisition of Southern Union Company (NYSE:SUG).Following the closure of the syndication, the group of banks financing the transaction now consists of: Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co., Royal Bank of Scotland plc, SunTrust Banks Inc., UBS Securities LLC, Wells Fargo Securities LLC and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.
John W. McReynolds, President and Chief Financial Officer of Energy Transfer Equity, L.P., commented: "We are pleased to report the successful completion of the acquisition financing syndication to a group of strong financial institutions. This means that all the major terms of the financing have been finalized without any need for adjustment and is therefore another major step in reducing future financial risk to ETE. Today's news, combined with the recent HSR clearance, demonstrates that we are on track to complete this transaction in the first quarter of 2012."
As previously announced, in connection with ETE's acquisition of SUG, SUG will cause the contribution of its 50% interest in Citrus Corp. to Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ETP) in exchange for $2.0 billion, the cash proceeds from which will be used to repay a portion of the acquisition financing and to repay existing SUG-related debt to maintain appropriate investment grade credit metrics.Credit Suisse AG acted as sole administrative agent and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC acted as sole bookrunner and sole lead arranger.
