Penn Virginia Resource Partners and Penn Virginia GP Holdings Complete Merger

 

Penn Virginia Resource Partners, L. P. (NYSE:PVR) and its publicly traded general partner Penn Virginia GP Holdings, L.P. (PVG) announced on March 11, 2011 that they had successfully completed their merger, leaving PVR as the sole publicly traded partnership. The two partnerships announced in September 2010 that they had reached a definitive agreement to merge (click here for story).

Prior to the closing of the merger, PVG owned the general partner interest, all of the incentive distribution rights and an approximate 37 percent limited partner interest in PVR, a manager of coal and natural resource properties and related assets and the operator of a midstream natural gas gathering and processing business. As a result of the merger, PVG unitholders will be entitled to receive 0.98 PVR common units for each PVG common unit they own. Cash will be paid to PVG unitholders in lieu of any fractional units that would have resulted from the exchange. PVG's units were withdrawn from trading before the opening of the market on March 11. The holders of PVR common units will continue to own their existing units, which will continue trading on the New York Exchange.

The merger represents the fifth general partner that was a publicly traded partnership to be folded into its lower-tier PTP, following Magellan GP Holdings (September 2009), Inergy Holdings (November 2010), Buckeye GP Holdings (November 2010), and Enterprise GP Holdings (November 2010). A sixth, Hiland Holdings GP, was merged with an affiliate along with its PTP Hiland Partners and taken private in December 2009. Of the ten such GPs formed in 2005-2006, four now remain and have indicated no intent of restructuring. They are Alliance Holdings GP, L.P. (NASDAQ:AHGP); Atlas Energy, L.P. (formerly Atlas Pipeline Holdings, L.P., NYSE:AHD); Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (NYSE:ETE); and NuStar GP Holdings, LLC (NYSE:NSH).