While Williams Companies is urging its shareholders to approve the $38 billion merger with Energy Transfer Equity of Dallas, ETE’s CEO Kelcy Warren has second thoughts about the deal announced last fall. And testimony in a Delaware trial of one of the lawsuits filed by Williams against ETE indicated Warren had those thoughts within a few months after announcing the merger.
The Dallas Morning News reports Warren considered walking away from the deal in December 2015 because the downturn in the energy markets “raised fears about Energy Transfer’s viability” according to Jamie Welch, the company’s ex-chief financial officer.
Welch said Warren feared an “implosion” because of the drop in oil prices and might even prompt analysts to downgrade his company. He testified that Warren phoned from Australia in December 2015 to “explore what the company’s options were for pulling out of the deal”, according to the Times.
Welch was removed in February as Energy Transfer’s CEO.
“He wanted to understand what the rights and obligations were under the merger agreement. If he could walk away under the merger agreement, he would have,” added Welch.