Liam Denning, Columnist

Energy Transfer and the Art of Transference

Ordinary investors bear the brunt of its Sunoco Logistics deal.

November 22, 2016 at 1:00 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

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When the Energy Transfer family of companies announces a deal, it pays to look at the details -- from a philosophical point of view, anyway. Because, if you are a limited partner in the web of companies run by Kelcy Warren, your lack of ability to affect the outcome means, details or no, you'll have to live with the consequences.

The latest one, whereby Sunoco Logistics Partners LP will buy Energy Transfer Partners LP for about $21 billion, is Warren's biggest since Energy Transfer Equity LP's ill-fated tilt at The Williams Cos. Inc., which collapsed earlier this year. Ostensibly, the Williams deal foundered on a tax technicality -- but only after months of Energy Transfer twisting and turning against the original terms of the deal.