In March MDN reported that Canadian midstream giant TransCanada wants a bigger piece of the Marcellus/Utica midstream (i.e. pipeline) pie and has decided to buy Columbia Pipeline Group for $10 billion (see TransCanada Makes Play to Buy Columbia Pipeline for $10B). Columbia Pipeline shareholders are due to vote on the deal in June (see Columbia Pipeline Shareholders to Vote on TransCanada Deal June 22). But what’s this? Apparently there’s been a small bump on the road to a happy union. TransCanada announced yesterday they have withdraw their pre-merger notification with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and will refile the notification again on May 6 (tomorrow). Why? To restart the clock for FTC regulators who are reviewing the deal. Apparently there is a 30-day period at the end of which the FTC must render an opinion. Sometimes big, complex deals like this one take longer than 30 days, so a common practice is to pull the notification and re-file to buy the FTC more time…
