Susser Shareholders Approve ETP Merger

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- It's almost a done deal.

At a special meeting Thursday morning, Susser Holdings Corp. stockholders voted by a vast majority to approve the convenience store retailer's merger with Energy Transfer Partners LP. Both companies expect to complete the merger Friday.

Approximately 99 percent of the shares voted at the meeting were cast in favor of adopting the merger agreement, which represented approximately 77 percent of Susser's total outstanding shares of common stock as of the July 22 record date for the special meeting, according to a joint news release.

On April 28, Houston-based ETP announced plans to acquire Corpus Christi-based Susser in a deal valued at $1.8 billion. By acquiring Susser, ETP will now own the general partner interest and the incentive distribution rights in Susser Petroleum Partners LP, approximately 11 million Susser Petroleum common units (representing approximately 50.2 percent of outstanding units) and Susser's retail operations consisting of 630 Stripes and Sac-n-Pac convenience stores.

ETP is a master limited partnership and parent company to Sunoco Inc. and Mid-Atlantic Convenience Stores. Plans call for ETP to "drop down" all of its retail assets to Susser Petroleum, which will continue to operate as a publicly traded master limited partnership. As a result, the retail business will operate separately from ETP.

Susser revealed earlier this week that holders of 85 percent of the outstanding shares of its stock (18.57 million shares) elected to receive units in ETP. Holders of 7 percent of Susser's stock (1.49 million shares) elected to receive a mix of cash and ETP units, and 1 percent elected to receive cash only. According to Susser, 7 percent of shareholders failed to make a valid election prior to the deadline and are therefore deemed to have requested a combination of cash and ETP units, as CSNews Online previously reported.