Many institutional investors raised their holdings in the stocks of the top publicly traded oil and gas midstream companies in North America in the second quarter, especially in two companies that announced or were about to announce multibillion-dollar deals.
Out of a selected group of 10 midstream companies, six companies had a net increase in shares purchased by banks and investment funds, an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis of SEC Form 13F filings showed.
Energy Transfer
Leading the way in second-quarter activity was Energy Transfer LP, which said in the third quarter that it will acquire Crestwood Equity Partners LP in an all-equity transaction valued at about $7.1 billion. The deal will include Crestwood's oil and gas gathering and processing assets in the Delaware, Powder River and Williston basins, which provide about 2 Bcf/d of gas gathering capacity, 1.4 Bcf/d of gas processing capacity, and 340,000 barrels per day of crude gathering capacity.
EnCap Flatrock Midstream LP bought 40.3 million shares in the second quarter for a new stake in Energy Transfer valued at about $511.4 million, or 1.28% ownership. The net change in total ownership of the company in the quarter was an increase of 19.2 million shares, the largest of the group.
Magellan Midstream
Another company in the top three of investor activity for the second quarter, Magellan Midstream Partners LP had a pending $18.8 billion cash-and-stock deal to be acquired by midstream operator Oneok Inc. The deal was announced in May.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc. and Harvest Fund Advisors LLC bought a total of about 8 million Magellan shares, helping to increase ownership of the midstream company by 5.5 million shares in the quarter.
Kinder Morgan Inc. ranked second in institutional investor activity. Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust bought 27.2 million Kinder Morgan shares in the quarter to put its total stake at $475.5 million and 1.23% ownership.
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