FILED BY GULFTERRA ENERGY PARTNERS, L.P.
PURSUANT TO RULE 425 UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED
AND DEEMED FILED PURSUANT TO RULE 14A-12
OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
SUBJECT COMPANY: ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS PARTNERS L.P.
COMMISSION FILE NO.: 1-14323
GULFTERRA ENERGY PARTNERS, L.P. ("GULFTERRA") AND ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS PARTNERS
L.P. ("ENTERPRISE") WILL FILE A JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND OTHER
RELEVANT DOCUMENTS WITH THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION. INVESTORS AND
SECURITY HOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ CAREFULLY THE JOINT PROXY
STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE,
BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING GULFTERRA, ENTERPRISE
AND THE MERGER. A DEFINITIVE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS WILL BE SENT TO
SECURITY HOLDERS OF GULFTERRA AND ENTERPRISE SEEKING THEIR APPROVAL OF THE
MERGER TRANSACTIONS. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS MAY OBTAIN A FREE COPY OF
THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS (WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE) AND OTHER RELEVANT
DOCUMENTS CONTAINING INFORMATION ABOUT GULFTERRA AND ENTERPRISE AT THE SEC'S
WEB SITE AT WWW.SEC.GOV. COPIES OF THE DEFINITIVE JOINT PROXY
STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND THE SEC FILINGS THAT WILL BE INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
IN THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS MAY ALSO BE OBTAINED FOR FREE BY
DIRECTING A REQUEST TO THE RESPECTIVE PARTNERSHIPS.
GULFTERRA AND ENTERPRISE AND THE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE
GENERAL PARTNERS MAY BE DEEMED TO BE PARTICIPANTS IN THE SOLICITATION OF
PROXIES FROM THEIR SECURITY HOLDERS. INFORMATION ABOUT THESE PERSONS CAN BE
FOUND IN GULFTERRA'S AND ENTERPRISE'S RESPECTIVE ANNUAL REPORTS ON FORM 10-K
FILED WITH THE SEC, AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT SUCH PERSONS MAY BE
OBTAINED FROM THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE.
This filing relates to the proposed merger between GulfTerra Energy Partners,
L.P. ("GulfTerra") and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. ("Enterprise")
announced on Monday, December 15, 2003. This filing includes a transcript of a
conference call that took place on Monday, December 15, 2003 at 10:30 a.m.
central time that covered certain business information related to the proposed
merger and related transactions that were reviewed with the financial community
and investors. This presentation is also available on Enterprise's website,
www.epplp.com.
Final Transcript
CCBN StreetEvents
CCBN StreetEvents Conference Call Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
Event Date/Time: Dec. 15. 2003 / 11:30AM
ET Event Duration: N/A
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 1
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS
Randy Burkhalter
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Director of Investor Relations
O.S. "Dub" Andras
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief Executive Officer
Robert Phillips
GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive Officer
Michael Creel
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer
Keith Forman
GulfTerra Energy Partners - Chief Financial Officer
CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS
Yves Siegel
Wachovia Securities - Analyst
Brian Bergey
Bank One - Analyst
Greg Redford
Cafe Financial - Analyst
Steven Butts
Deutsche Banc - Analyst
Eric Olson
Barrow Hanley - Analyst
Jack Moore
Van Guard - Analyst
Ron Londe
AG Edwards - Analyst
Stewart Morel
UBS - Analyst
Ross Payne
Wachovia Securities - Analyst
Sam Roswell
Merrill Lynch - Analyst
Michael Waldorf
Paulson & Company - Analyst
Gilpert Alexander
Darfoe - Analyst
Mark Easterbrook
RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
David LeBonte
Smith Barney - Analyst
Vidic Paol
Goldman Sachs - Analyst
PRESENTATION
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the
Enterprise/GulfTerra conference call. At this time, all participants are in a
listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session with
instructions being given at that time. If you should require assistance during
the call, please press star zero on your touch-tone phone. As a reminder, this
conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to
our host, Mr. Randy Burkhalter, please go ahead.
Randy Burkhalter - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. -
Director of Investor Relations
Thank you, Dave. Good morning and welcome to the Enterprise Products Partners
and GulfTerra Energy Partners conference call to discuss the merger announcement
that came out this morning. Dub Andras, Enterprise's President and CEO, will
lead the call and Mike Creel, the company's Executive Vice President and CFO
will follow with financial discussions, Bob Phillips will also speak from
GulfTerra Energy Partners. Also with us today is Dan Duncan, Chairman and
Co-Founder of Enterprise. There are various other members of management present
from both Enterprise and GulfTerra to assist on the call. Afterwards, we will
open the call up for your questions.
During this call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 21 E of the Securities and Exchange Commission Act of 1934 that are
based on the beliefs of Enterprise and GulfTerra, as well as assumptions made by
and information currently available to Enterprise and GulfTerra's management.
Although Enterprise and GulfTerra believe that the expectations reflected in
such forward-looking statements are reasonable, neither Enterprise nor GulfTerra
can rive assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Please refer
to Enterprise's and GulfTerra's latest filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission for a list of factors that may cause actual results to differ
materially from those in the forward-looking statements made during this call.
Now, I will turn the call over to Dub.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Thank you, Randy and good morning and thank you for joining us today. Today is a
historic day for our partnerships in that we have announced a multi step
transaction that results in a merger of equals of Enterprise and GulfTerra. The
combination creates one
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 3
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
of the leading providers of midstream energy services in the United States with
an enterprise value of approximately $13 billion. The combined businesses
provide a complete array of services for producers and consumers of natural gas,
natural gas liquids and crude oil from wellheads to end users and key producing
and consuming reasons.
In natural gas, we will have gathering, treating, processing, transportation and
storage and, in Texas and Louisiana, intrastate markets. In the NGL,
transportation, fractionation storage, distribution and an import/export
terminating assets. In the Gulf of Mexico, we will have crude oil and natural
gas gathering and transportation and hub platform services.
Some of the significance of the transaction, strong asset position serving the
major producing basins which are Gulf of Mexico, onshore, shelf and deep water,
South and East Texas, the Permian Basin, the San Juan Basin, Rocky Mountains and
even Western Canada, a set of entry basins through connections with third party
pipelines in the Upper Midwest. A full service franchise serving the largest
consuming regions of natural gas, NGLs and crude oil on the U.S. Gulf Coast,
primarily refineries in petrochemical facilities.
We will have a complimentary business profile that generates substantial cash
flow from fee-based services and provide a partial natural hedge to changes in
commodity prices.
A general overview of the combined operations, we will have in the pipeline
segment, 17,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, 13,000 miles of NGL and
petrochemical pipelines, 340 miles of Gulf of Mexico crude oil pipelines, 164
million barrels of NGL storage capacity and 23 billion cubic feet of natural gas
storage capacity, six Gulf of Mexico platform hubs and NGLs to import and export
terminals on the Houston ship channel and fractionation will have 19 plants,
interest in 19 plants with a net capacity of approximately 650,000 barrels per
day. In natural gas processing, we will have interest in 24 plants, with a net
processing capacity of 6 billion cubic feet per day. Over 70% of contract mix is
fee-based, percent of proceeds, or a liquids or hybrid.
The value drivers for the merger are the following: It creates a $13 billion
partnership with the best GP structure among the universe of growth
partnerships, the highest GP incentive distribution right of 25% results in a
lower cost of capital for the combined partnerships and greater accretion from
organic and acquisition growth. The transfer of economic value from the GP to
the limited partnership as a result of the high splits being capped at 25%
versus 50%, like the other growth partnerships, is significant. Based on the
size of the combined partnerships, approximately 319 million units outstanding,
if you would assume an annual cash distribution growth rate of 8%, the
cumulative amount of cash retained in the partnership over a five-year period
with a high split of 25% versus 50% is approximately $600 million. Even at a
conservative growth rate of 6%, the amount of cash retained is $400 million.
This savings on the lower payout to the GP can be used to reinvest in the growth
of the partnership, retire debt and/or increase distributions to the limited
partners.
Also, we have the contribution of a 50% ownership in GTM GP from EPD's GP to the
limited partners for no consideration. It's estimated annual cash flow is $42
million and effectively subsidizes the transactions to benefit the LP unit
holders and debt investors. We will continue to be consistent with our focus on
economic alignment with the LP unit holders, post closing the merger, affiliates
of the GP will own approximately 43% of EPD's LP units. And then, we will in
addition have the traditional merger synergies of incremental and organic growth
and commercial opportunities at annual cost savings synergies initially
estimated to be $30 million and potential interest savings.
I will now turn the presentation to Bob Phillips, the Chairman and CEO of
GulfTerra. Bob?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
Thanks, Dub and I want to start by thanking Dan Duncan and his team for their
role in making this deal happen. Also, extend congratulations to all of the
Enterprise management team, the GulfTerra management team and the El Paso
management team. These folks worked very hard over the last few weeks to get
this transaction done, we're very proud of the transaction and we're excited
about being here with you today to announce this great merger between two
successful public partnerships and two of the most respected midstream companies
in the industry.
Some early press reports, of course, have erroneously described the deal as an
acquisition by Enterprise at a slight premium or just another divestiture by El
Paso but it is neither one of those, it is truly a merger of equals that is
going to create an outstanding midstream company that will clearly benefit the
long term opportunities for each of Enterprise and GulfTerra and in my mind, it
is a deal where one plus one is clearly going to be three. It is a deal that is,
in the long term, best interest of both the Enterprise and the GulfTerra unit
holders, by combining a very low cost capital structure with a great set of
assets and a tremendous set of growth opportunities for this business.
Starting off slide nine, I would like to expand on the rationale for this
combination and highlight some of the long-term benefits that we think are
likely to accrue to our investors, our employees and our customers. First and
foremost, this merger of Enterprise and GulfTerra will create the most
geographically and functionally diverse midstream company in the industry. We
think this is going to be very attractive to investors in the MLP sector.
Secondly, the increased scope of the combined business will clearly promote a
greater number of greenfield or organic projects,
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 3
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
systems expansions and acquisitions, opportunities, as I said, supported by a
substantial capital platform for investment.
This management team, once we combine the two entities, will be second to none,
with a joint focus on top performance in the MLP sector and I think based upon
our past track records we can deliver that year after year. We believe the new
partnership and governance structures for the merged enterprise will become the
model in our industry. We are very proud of that, we spent a lot of time working
on the governance structure and we think it will become a blueprint for future
MLPs.
As I said, this transaction is a real winner for all three companies. The deal
reflects the value that Enterprise and GulfTerra have achieved through our solid
performance in recent years and it achieves the goals of El Paso's new
long-range plan which was announced earlier today and finally, I think this is a
perfect marriage of companies that share similar investment, operating and
customer services philosophies. I know having been fortunate to manage GulfTerra
for the last few years and getting to know the Enterprise people, that we have
the best employees in the industry and we look forward to joining forces to
create a world class midstream company.
On the next slide, let me just give you what is the obvious and I think
breath-taking result of this great combination. The merger represents a very
impressive combination of midstream assets, spanning the U.S. from the Rockies
to the deep water trend of the Gulf of Mexico, with Enterprise's industry
leadership in natural gas liquids and petrochemical services and GulfTerra's
strong position in pipelines, the combination, I think, can realize both
benefits of integration, as well as a diversity of being strategically
positioned in all the best supply basins in North America in the leading
consuming regions for gas and gas liquids.
Clearly, the assets that enterprise and GulfTerra bring to the table are
complimentary, offer tremendous growth potential and we think a very focused
expansion of services for our customers. We are very excited about this map and,
again, we think it will be attractive to investors and a compelling story to the
current unit holders of Enterprise and GulfTerra.
On the next slide, I think we focus in on one of our geographical opportunities,
we're very excited about the growth potential for these combined businesses, in
the Gulf Coast area, where our combined assets and businesses can offer
producers, shippers and our end use customers with a full range of competitive
services from the well head to the market. We will say this over and over and
over again. Without a doubt, this combination not only offers a great advantage
to our investors, but one of the important drivers will be the benefits to our
customers both current customers of both partnerships, as well as future
customers.
Clearly, you can see in Texas and Louisiana, we are well positioned to offer a
broad range of those services from the wellhead, all the way to the burner tip
and into the petrochemical and refining markets. The combination of Enterprise's
industry-leading Mont Bellevue and Louisiana and NGL, petrochemical assets along
with GulfTerra's pipeline processing and fractionation assets in Texas as well
as GulfTerra's Gulf of Mexico pipelines and platforms, we think will provide a
model for operating synergies, the ability to access growing markets and the
scale to enhance customer performance. We are very excited about the combination
and what benefits that will create for our customers in the Gulf Coast area.
As we begin to drill down to some of the geographic regions where we think we
have exceptional compliment between our existing assets, I start with the
Rockies and the San Juan Basin area, it is a perfect example, in fact a great
example of the complimentary nature of this merger. In the San Juan Basin, as
you know, which is one of the gas-rich regions of the Rockies that currently
supplies Enterprise's substantial mid-America pipeline system, the largest
gatherer and transporter of natural gas liquids from the gas rich Rockies
region, the San Juan Basin is one of the stops along the way and it is a
significant contributor of NGL supplies to that pipeline system.
Likewise, GulfTerra's existing San Juan gathering system in the Chocco
Processing Plant, currently gather and process long live conventional ridge gas
reserves and currently produce about 44,000 barrels a day of wide grade product
into the MAPPEL system. You can see the synergies, they jump off the page,
clearly as we go forward, with announced optimization projects like we have,
expansions of our gathering system and processing plant which are currently
under way. We should begin to provide more downstream value as the combined
entity would benefit from higher volumes through MAPPEL and as our customers in
the San Juan Basin will benefit from direct access to the Mont Bellevue NGL
markets.
Clearly and additionally, as Dub mentioned, we see some synergies on the
economic side of our combined contract portfolio, GulfTerra's indexed based
gathering contracts in the San Juan Basin can act as a bit of a natural hedge or
a partial hedge, as gas prices increase and GulfTerra's gathering rates increase
in the San Juan Basin, that offsets the effect of higher gas prices on
Enterprise's petrochemical business. We see a lot of synergies in this area by
combining not only the assets in the San Juan Basin region but by combining two
great contract portfolios and a lot of benefits to our producers and our market
customers.
On the next slide we will talk a little bit about the Texas intrastate pipeline.
GulfTerra's Texas system, as you know, is the largest in Texas with extensive
reach to all the major supply regions like the South Texas Vicksburg, the Wilcox
Trends in South Texas, the Moisture Trend in East Texas and the prolific Barnan
Shale in the Fort Worth Basin. Additionally, you may remember we are the largest
gas service provider to the growing Central Texas market of Austin and San
Antonio and a primary transporter for a number of
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 4
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
gas fired power plants constructed in Texas in recent years. The pipeline has
been a cornerstone of GTM's business and will continue to be after the merger.
So where is the complimentary nature of the pipeline system? Clearly, the
acquisition of the nine natural gas processing plants, which support that
pipeline system in South Texas, which are being acquired as a part of this
merger transaction is a very important recombination, if you will, of those
plants with the physical operation of the pipeline system, resulting in greater
efficiencies and expanded supply opportunities to feed both the natural gas
pipeline as well as our complimentary natural gas liquids infrastructure along
the Texas Gulf Coast.
Flipping the page, I think you can see the real synergy of the combination and
that is by examining how we can combine the physical operations of our Texas
intrastate pipeline and our very similarly positioned Enterprise Acadian gas
pipeline, I think it indicates where a lot of these synergies will come from, I
would simply point out that the Acadian system is similarly well positioned in
Louisiana, Louisiana's intrastate market for future growth and expanded
services, we're excited about the potential of combining the operating
capabilities of these two pipelines to improve customer services, compete for
new supplies, expand into new markets and benefit from the overall increased
demand that we expect for natural gas in the years ahead.
I think, as we turn in to the natural gas liquids business, though, you begin to
see the real cornerstone synergies that emerge from this combination. Natural
gas liquids and petrochemicals have always been Enterprise's core business since
the beginning. They are clearly considered to be the industry leader in this
area and we're proud to combine our Texas-based NGL assets with Enterprise's
great franchise business located in Mont Bellevue and throughout Louisiana.
GTM's NGL transportation and fractionation assets, as you know, run from deep
South Texas up to the Houston market and the purchase of El Paso's South Texas
processing plants through this merger agreement clearly ensures the long term
NGL supply base for our customers attached to this NGL system along the Gulf
Coast, but importantly, the combination of this business, along with
Enterprise's business, under one roof, enables us to provide more flexibility to
our individual and combined customers, allows us to offer state of the art
services to the petrochemical and refining market and to better balance supplies
across regions for petrochemical feed stock and products to this vital sector of
the economy. We're looking forward to a big rebound in the economy and in the
NGL sector and I think that will benefit both Enterprise as well as GulfTerra.
I think the greatest growth potential from this combination may lie in the Gulf
of Mexico where GulfTerra has established itself as a leader in the development
of midstream infrastructure, to new oil and gas discoveries in the deep water
trend and Enterprise's onshore NGL infrastructure is both incomparable as well
as well positioned to benefit from the increased rich gas supplies that will be
coming from those new fields that we will be gathering and processing. With
major projects under way, searches such as Marco Polo, platform, and export
pipelines, the Phoenix and Medusa gathering systems, offshore, the Cameron
Highway oil pipeline system, I think you can understand our excitement about the
opportunities in the deep water trend and in the Gulf of Mexico and coming
onshore into Louisiana to offer even greater services to our producers, greater
access to supplies to our consumers in Louisiana, through this planned merger
with Enterprise and I think we are very excited about the opportunities for
growth from the Gulf of Mexico.
Now finally, a key component of our diversified business portfolio after the
merger will clearly be gas processing. Processing, of course, enhances the
competitiveness of our gathering systems and our pipelines allowing us to
attract rich gas supplies but it also provides the basic supplies of NGL's to
Enterprise's industry-leading fractionation, storage, terminal and petrochemical
business. This integrated business model, of course, has been the foundation of
Enterprise's long-term success and we're excited about employing that after we
combine these businesses.
One of the key benefits of this transaction will be to dampen the earnings
volatility of the processing business through the combination of GulfTerra's
plants, which are currently largely a percentage of proceeds and fixed fee, as
well as the new South Texas plants being acquired from El Paso at the close of
the merger. And I think the chart clearly depicts the improved contract mix that
we will benefit from owing, in large part, to the successful renegotiation of
several traditional key pole contracts and margin bend contracts in the
Enterprise portfolio, as well as in El Paso's South Texas plant portfolio,
changing those into more risk averse percentage of proceeds and fixed fee
contracts but we see significant benefits in the stability of cash flows coming
from this very important aspect of our business.
That's a very rough and very quick overview of what we think are some of the
compelling geographic and business aspects of this transaction. I think that the
deal structure and the governance structure as well are compelling parts of the
deal which you would be interested in. It is a compelling story all around
supported by a world class set of midstream assets, that's no doubt, and most
professional employees in the energy industry.
I know that all of us here at GulfTerra are.proud to be part of this merger and
I'm looking forward to working with Dan and Dub and all of the Enterprise and
GulfTerra employees to make this the best MLP in the business and with that, I
turn it over to Mike Creel to review the transaction structure and then I will
come back and talk briefly about the proposed governance structure and the post
merger management team. Mike?
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 5
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Bob. We will break this into two steps: There are two principal steps in
the transaction, step one occurred today, step two will occur after we receive
owner approval from both sets of unit holders as well as FTC approval and
satisfactory customary closing conditions, we expect step two to occur in the
second half of 2004.
In step one, there were a couple of different pieces to it. In the first, El
Paso reacquired the 9.9% interest in GulfTerra's general partner that was owned
by Goldman Sachs and, immediately after that, Enterprise acquired a 50%
ownership and the general partner of GulfTerra from El Paso, for $425 million in
cash. That $425 million came from our existing credit facilities, as $200
million there and $225 million from an acquisition credit facility.
There is, on the web site, in the structure diagram on page 19, you can see the
flow of the various funds and the resulting ownership in the GulfTerra Energy
Partner General Partner. As you can see, Enterprise owns 50% and El Paso, of
course, owns 50% today.
The balance sheet for Enterprise as of the end of the third quarter, showed that
we had debt to total capitalization of just over a 52%, net debts to total
capitalization, just under 52%. After this transaction, we expect that the debt
to total cap would have been roughly 54% and the pieces that affected the
balance sheet refers to the payment of the $425 million for the 50% ownership in
GulfTerra's general partner, along with some minor associated costs, we have
also shown the effect of the $102 million that we expect to receive on Wednesday
as a result of the issuance of the class B units, as well as the $32.9 million
of cash that we received, actually we didn't receive, through our distribution
reinvestment program in November. Again, with those adjustments, the 9/30
balance sheet would have shown debt to total cap of roughly 54%.
With that, I will turn it back over to Bob to discuss the governance in step
one.
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
Yeah, thanks, Mike. This is a very important feature of the deal to the
GulfTerra unit holders and to the rating agencies, equity and debt holders that
follow our company. As you know, we worked very hard throughout this year on our
ring fencing initiatives, culminating in a sale several months ago of 9.9% of
the GP interest to Goldman Sachs largely driven by the need to ring fence our
credit profile from El Paso, the general partner.
This transaction carries on that same model and is patterned after that Goldman
Sachs transaction, providing all the relevant protections to the GulfTerra unit
holders under a number of different circumstances, the difference of course is
El Paso -- Enterprise would own 50% sharing ratio in the GP as opposed to the
9.9%. It is nonvoting, as a descriptive term meaning that it does not
participate in essentially the management of the business, that is an important
distinction as well, but I want to be clear to about this to the GTM unit
holders that Enterprise products would have the same protective rights which
benefit GTM's LP unit holders with respect to a certain number of transactions,
including voluntary bankruptcy or any action relating to bankruptcy liquidation
or dissolution. And importantly, El Paso would still have the technical
responsibility for managing the business during this interim period.
On the next slide, we can talk about a couple of other, I think, equally
important provisions of this transaction. There are no one line provisions.
There is no doubt that the three parties to this transaction, absolutely and
unequivocally intend to go forward with the transaction. It is highly unlikely
that step two would occur but in the unlikely event that it might, it certainly
puts in the same position that we are today and that is that Enterprise would
own one-half of the GP interest and, we think, one of the best MP's in the
industry and our debt holders would continue to benefit from the koxd GP
structure and all the protections that that would provide to our limited partner
unit holders.
Clearly, a right of first refusal between the two 50/50 owners of the general
partnership is the normal aspect of a deal of this magnitude, you would expect a
deal like this to have that and we believe that that as well is an attractive
feature guaranteeing long-term stability to this partnership. So, having touched
on those two features, I will turn it back over to Mike to talk about step two.
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Bob and step two again, step two is conditioned on receiving FTC
approval and unit holder approval. After that, we will go forward with step two
and the first part of step two, El Paso will contribute the remaining 50%
interest in GulfTerra's general partner to Enterprise's general partner, in
exchange for a 50% ownership in Enterprise's general partner. The 50% interest
in GulfTerra's general partner that we received from El Paso will be then
contributed down to our partnership for no consideration.
After that, Enterprise will purchase approximately 13.8 million GulfTerra units
owned by El Paso for $500 million in cash. That purchase price is based on a 10%
discount to the average GulfTerra price for the 20 trading days prior to
announcement and that is roughly $36.19 per unit. Immediately after that,
Enterprise Products Partners and GulfTerra Energy Partners will merge with
Enterprise named the surviving parent entity and GulfTerra surviving their
wholly-owned subsidiary of Enterprise.
In the transaction, the GulfTerra unit holders will receive 1.81 of Enterprise
common units for each GulfTerra common unit and this
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 6
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
represents approximately a 2.2% premium based on the relevant prices and closing
prices on December 12, 2003 and the transaction with El Paso would also exchange
its remaining 7.5 million GulfTerra common units at 1.81 times, for 13.6 million
Enterprise units.
It is estimated that after this transaction, after the merger is completed, we
will have roughly 319 million units outstanding and we do expect to increase the
cash distribution rate on our units to $1.58 per unit after closing step two and
that's equivalent to the GulfTerra distribution rate of $2.86 per unit.
Concurrent with the merger, Enterprise will also purchase nine South Texas
natural gas processing and treatment plants from El Paso for $150 million and,
as Bob has indicated, those plants are very important to the combined MLP and we
think will provide a lot of value going forward.
On page 25, you can see the structure diagram, the movement of cash and the
various pieces involved in step two and on page 26, you can see the resulting
ownership structure and the ownership interest. We think it is a very exciting
transaction and are looking forward to it and with that, I will turn it back
over to Bob to talk about post merger governance provisions.
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
Mike I think this is another very attractive feature of the transaction,
clearly, a great corporate governance structure modeled largely after how we
were set up at GulfTerra but a much larger and clearly, more representative and
more attractive Board than we had at GulfTerra. It is a Board that will be
composed of five members designated or selected by both Enterprise as well as El
Paso. Clearly an alignment of interests there and an opportunity to staff that
Board with some significant experience to help us manage this business.
Of course, Dan Duncan and Dub Andras will be designated members of the Board
with Dan continuing his role as Chairman and Dub continuing his role as CEO as a
Board member. On the El Paso side, El Paso has designated myself and Dwight
Scott as the initial inside Board members and we will be adding, as Enterprise
will, three designated independent Board members. Again, I think a model for the
industry, with a combination of combined GP structure and a Board, a governance
structure that reflects the interests of those two 50/50 owners in the combined
GP. A Board that will clearly be independent in terms of both the New York Stock
Exchange as well as Sarbanes-Oxley rules, protecting the rights and representing
the interests of our public unit holders and our debt holders. I'm very pleased
with this, I think the rating agencies will find this an attractive feature and
I think it will draw the interest of investors as well and may become a model
for the industry.
On the audit and conflicts side, of course, with co GP's we will continue to
carry on the tradition of having an independent, entirely independent audit and
special conflicts committee that will manage the process of an approval
intercompany transactions between the co-GB and the partnership.
On the next page, a number of item or features that will ensure we are all on
the same page going forward ensuring that to the extent that the Board must
decide upon any number of these fundamental future transactions, that at least
one insider from each of the two co GP's will be required to approve that
transaction. We think that is an important feature as well, that clearly aligns
the interests of the general partners with the limited partners and importantly,
that last footnote, or last bullet on page 28, in the event of a deadlock, which
I suppose is a remote possibility, it is not lost on me that Dan Duncan will be
the tie-breaker since he was the Founder of this enterprise, is the largest
investor in the enterprise, and I think probably the most experienced of this
combined enterprise MLP as well so, we are very pleased with that.
I would ask to you turn to the next slide, which briefly describes the
post-merger management. We've not given a lot of consideration to this, as you
would expect, we have all been working hard to complete this transaction. Again,
I'm proud to ensure the Enterprise unit holders that their senior experienced
and a very successful management combination of Dan Duncan and Dub Andras will
continue to lead this combined entity. I'm pleased and proud to be a part of
that, play a role in the future management team and we all are going to sit down
relatively soon and take an opportunity to reflect on this great business that
we're going to put together and this great set of employees and executives that
we have to create what, we think, will be the top management team in both the
MLP space as well as the midstream space and we're excited about that.
And those are my final comments and I will turn it back to Mike for the last
couple of slides.
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Bob. Post closing, in step two, the ownership of Enterprise is going to
shake out something like this: EPCO, an Enterprise Products Company which is a
privately owned company and it's affiliates will own roughly 37.8% of the
company, our public unit holders will own approximately 16.6%, the GulfTerra
public unit holders will own roughly 24.8% of the combined entity, Shell will
own 12.6%, that's through their 41 million common units that they currently own,
El Paso Corporation will own 4.2% and Goldman Sachs will own 2%. That's all
totals roughly 98% and it totals exactly 98% and the general partner will
continue to own the 2% interest.
We think this is a great alignment of owners. We think that it is going to be a
very good transaction, not only for our equity owners
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 7
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
but also from our debt holder standpoint and we look forward to going forward
with them to combining the companies and realizing the synergies and the
opportunities that we think exist and with that, we will open it up for
questions.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Operator
Certainly, ladies and gentlemen if you wish to ask a question, please depress
the star one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a tone indicating that you
have been placed in queue and you may remove yourself from that queue at any
time by depressing the pound key. If you are using a speaker phone, please pick
up your hand set before pressing any numbers and if you did queue up before this
announcement, please requeue. One moment please, for our first question. Thank
you. Our first question will come from the line of Yves Siegel with Wachovia.
Please go ahead.
Yves Siegel - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
Good morning.
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Good morning.
Yves Siegel - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
A couple of questions, one, is it possible for you all to just give a quick
background on what was the genesis of the two companies coming together, number
one? And then the second part is, GulfTerra, the way you structured this, is
going to be a wholly-owned subsidiary, is that something that will change over
time? Is there, in terms of just managing the assets, what is the ability, I
would think, to combine some of those assets, thanks.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Let's answer your number two one, first. Mike would you answer that one?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Sure, Yves. After the step two closing, clearly there is debt at the GulfTerra
level and that's principally why this has been structured the way it is to make
sure that is going to remain there. There is obviously the opportunity to manage
the assets separately from the ownership and we expect to be able to realize
synergies, irrespective of the actual ownership structure. There may be an
opportunity down the road to change the ownership structure, merge entities but
we, honestly, haven't got that far yet.
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 8
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
The answer to your number one question is, Bob Phillips and I have been
discussing the possibility for some time and it really didn't gel until the new
CEO of El Paso came on the scene in September, and Bob reviewed the idea with
him and it went from there into serious negotiations.
Yves Siegel - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
Could you also just comment on how you arrive at $30 million of cost savings?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Yeah, Yves, it was a relatively high level exercise that we went through, and we
assumed that there was probably $18 million or so in employee costs, there was
about $4 million in insurance costs, $4 million in public company costs, a
million dollars in rent, a million dollars in director and officer liability
insurance, and there's $2 million that we estimated of I.T. cost savings. and
again, this is pretty high level. We've not really got than much into the other
parts of the business operationally what we might be able to do, and clearly,
there are other opportunities, but those are the kinds of areas that we
identified from just kind of a high level.
Yves Siegel - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
And last question, in terms of looking at the customer base and I know it is
early, so you probably haven't had a chance to talk to your major customers, but
the question is, is there an opportunity to add new customers that maybe
GulfTerra had and Enterprise didn't have? Is there opportunities to provide new
services and on the flip side, is there some overlap that perhaps you might see
some loss of revenue? Thank you.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Bob, do you want to answer that one?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
Yeah, Yves, first of all, there is little overlap from a geographic standpoint.
I think if you looked at the maps as we flipped through them, you saw the great
map that's created by this combination. So, from geographic region to region,
there is not a lot of overlap in the basic businesses. No doubt, Enterprise's
NGL and petrochemical business is substantially greater than ours but I think
there is some common customers in there that we serve, given the fact that the
petrochemical and refining market is fairly small in terms of the number of
major players that we serve. I think that what allows us to do is to enhance the
services that we can provide to those petrochemical and natural gas liquids
customers.
And then, in the areas where we do have some similar or integrated
opportunities, such as where we will be bringing new oil and gas supplies on
from the deep water trend, into the Louisiana market, there is no doubt that
that, in that area, the transaction will enhance or benefit the range of
customer services that we can provide. So, I don't see this as a two plus two
equals three, quite the opposite, this will be two plus two equals five and we
should be adding some additional customers through the combined portfolio but
clearly, enhancing the levels of service and performance to our customers as we
go forward.
Yves Siegel - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
All right. Thank you. Good luck.
Operator
Thank you. Next we will have a question from the line of Brian Bergey with Bank
One. Please go ahead.
Brian Bergey - Bank One - Analyst
Hi, it's Brian Bergey from Bank One Capital Markets. Actually just wanted to
get, this is a question for Mike, if you look at the pro forma leverage matrix,
I mean -- I came up with a 54% after step one. After phase two, or step two,
once you pay the $150 million for the plants, you've assumed the GulfTerra debt
and so forth. What does the pro forma leverage look like in that case?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Well, I would love to answer but I've been cautioned not to go into pro formas
but it is a relatively straightforward exercise and the debt to total cap number
might surprise you, if you actually go through the exercise, because in the
transaction, we're exchanging our common units for the outstanding common units
of GulfTerra, the GulfTerra units are recorded on a book basis. So -- and ours
are going to be issued based on the fair market value at the time of exchange.
So, the debt to cap will actually be lower than you might otherwise expect and I
wish I could go through the numbers with you, but our lawyers have threatened me
with severe bodily harm if I did that.
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 9
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
Brian Bergey - Bank One - Analyst
Just out of curiosity, as far as the rating agencies are concerned, have you had
a chance to talk with them about this? And any first look signs about, you know,
I guess strategically there is no doubt that this thing makes sense, I guess
from a financial perspective, I was wondering if there was any concern that you
got from the rating agencies?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Well, let me answer it first and Randy's had more direct contact with the rating
agencies and I will let him follow-up but in our minds, one of the features that
we like about the transaction is the two-step nature of it and that enables us
to go forward and do the step one, acquiring the 50% interest in the GulfTerra
general partner and it is a relatively small transaction in the grand scheme of
things, $425 million, enables us to finance that in a way that makes sense for
us and our debt holders and then also, positions us for step two. In step two,
we're issuing a lot of equity in the exchange for the GulfTerra public units so
we think that, again, minimizes the risk of the transaction, certainly reduces
the leverage ratio that we have otherwise. But let me let Randy speak
specifically to the rating agencies.
Brian Bergey - Bank One - Analyst
Okay.
Randy Burkhalter - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Director of Investor
Relations
I think, right now, our current expectation there based on conversations that
we've had is that as far as at Moody's, currently, we're B-AA-2 with a stable
outlook there. They may come in and put us on negative outlook just as they
review the transaction. At S&P, we're at BBB minus, with a negative outlook. I
believe they will remove the negative outlook and just put us on credit watch
negative as they come in and review the transaction as well.
Brian Bergey - Bank One - Analyst
Thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. Next is a question or comment from the line of Greg Redford with Cafe
Financial. Please go ahead.
Greg Redford - Cafe Financial - Analyst
Good morning, thank you. I've noticed this is the second announced transaction
recently concerning midstream operations and I'm wondering if there is a
structural -- underlying structural change in the industry that makes these
assets more attractive on a going forward basis?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
You want to try that one, Bob?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
Yeah, no, no structural change that is taking place in the industry with respect
to midstream assets. You know, we've lived our entire careers in the midstream
sector, we think they've always been highly valued, largely because they're real
assets, delivering real cash flow, and people can count them. It is a very
transparent business, it is a service-oriented business, it is a business where
you can make investments and deliver returns and people can see the success of
your investment track record and both of these companies, Enterprise and
GulfTerra, have been tremendously successful in investing money in midstream
assets and providing services to customers, no structural change.
What has occurred, of course, is as more capital's moved into the master limited
partnership financing structure, because of the inherent advantages that it
provides to investors, because of the tax deferred nature of ownership of an MLP
and MLP's like Enterprise and GulfTerra have been so successful, in investing
investor money and delivering significantly increased distributable cash flow
over the last few years, there has been, you know, a significant influx of
capital into this sector. Because of the significant influx of the capital and
because a lot of the large energy conglomerates have suffered under some
deteriorating financial difficulty, making a lot of those assets available in
the market, then I think we're simply being in the right place at the right time
and the result is, our investors have made an awful lot of money over the last
several years. The good news is, we think that environment continues for a
number of years but this merger is not conditioned upon any type of acquisition
activity or pro forma expectations for making acquisitions.
The beauty of this merger is that we're combining two great sets of assets that
will create all sorts of internal investment opportunities for us that will
drive our growth in cash flows and distributions to unit holders.
Greg Redford - Cafe Financial - Analyst
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 10
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
Great. Thank you and with respect to the transaction itself, I noticed that
GulfTerra, at one point I think recently still had a rate case with FERK
outstanding, are there any conditions to the transaction relating to that, or
environmental audits, things of that nature?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
No, no conditions at all relating to the Ohio system or any environmental
liabilities. The deal is structured in a very conventional sense from that
standpoint.
Greg Redford - Cafe Financial - Analyst
Thank you. Finally; there breakup fees associated with the deal?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
Yes, there is. The breakup fee is dependent upon whether or not there is a
superior offer. There is a breakup fee of $112 million if there is a breakup due
to a superior offer. Otherwise, there is a breakup fee of $15 million.
Greg Redford - Cafe Financial - Analyst
Thank you. And I am sorry, just to clarify the last question you responded to;
is that to say that GulfTerra's rate case with FERK has been passed or still
under review?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
It is still being reviewed. It is still under review. But remember, the Ohio
system contributed to that $8 million of cash flow. An entity that is supposed
to generate $435 to $445 million this year.
Greg Redford - Cafe Financial - Analyst
Thanks a lot.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
That is GulfTerra, not the combined.
Greg Redford - Cafe Financial - Analyst
Right. Okay.
Operator
Thank you. And next is Steven Butts with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Steven Butts - Deutsche Banc - Analyst
Good morning, and congratulations.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Thank you, Steven.
Steven Butts - Deutsche Banc - Analyst
Can you quantify your market share, combined market share and processing in your
key regions? And also whether or not you think you would have any assets that
you might need to divest for FTC approval?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
We have not looked at market share. Clearly, with respect to divestitures, the
assets that Enterprise acquired from El Paso a couple years ago are subject to
an FTC consent order. We know those are going to have to be sold. We think that,
you know, the rest of the business is pretty good. There is not much overlap.
There are, obviously during the FTC process, we may discover that there are some
other assets that need to be sold but we think don't think there is anything
material.
Steven Butts - Deutsche Banc - Analyst
Okay and in terms of the $18 million in employee savings, what areas, you know,
do you expect those to be concentrated in?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Again, we've just looked at this at a very high level. We've not narrowed down
anything specifically. It is a just a merger of this sort, we just assume that
there is some savings.
Steven Butts - Deutsche Banc - Analyst
Okay. That's all for now. Thanks.
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 11
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
Operator
Thank you. Next we have a comment or question from Eric Olson with Barrow
Hanley. Please go ahead.
Eric Olson - Barrow Hanley - Analyst
Yes, good morning. A question about the rating agencies, I know you were
discussing this earlier, but are you willing to do whatever it takes to prevent
a downgrade by say S&P or Moody's?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
We have structured the transaction in a way and have looked at financing plans
in a way that would clearly put us in a position to retain a solid
investment-grade rating. Obviously, we have no control over what the rating
agencies do, we think we will be able to convince them that our plan is solid
and that if we execute it, that we should retain that investment grade rating.
Eric Olson - Barrow Hanley - Analyst
But, so you're not, can I interpret that to mean that you're not willing to say,
issue a lot of equity or some more assets to pay down debt to maintain your
investment grade rating?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
As I said we are issuing a lot of equity in the merger. If you just look at the
amount that we're going to be exchanging for the GulfTerra publicly owned units,
that is very substantial. If you're asking me if we will do things that we think
are irrational, simply to keep a rating and take steps that we don't think are
necessary, I'm not sure that's a fair question.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
I would like to say that that remains one of the primary goals of the MLP, is to
remain investment grade and we will work diligently to achieve that. One of the
things we would like to do is bring up one of GulfTerra's credits. we will have
Keith forman?
Keith Forman - GulfTerra Energy Partners - Chief Financial Officer
I will talk about, I think Mike has had the same experience with the rating
agencies. We wish it was that simple where they just laid it out, if you do X, Y
and Z, you will get this rating but in my 20 years experience, in Mike's 20
years experience, we have never had that. That clearly expressed to us, Eric, so
I really wish for your world but that's not the real world. But with respect to
the GTM credit rating, we expect that Moody's, we're going to have a
conversation later today with them, you know, the tone and vibe from our
conversations has been positive. From S&P, we also experienced the same positive
vibe and we expect, therefore, there to be no change out of the box, you know,
with our ratings, although the outlooks on those, that's the part that we're
waiting for later today to hear.
Eric Olson - Barrow Hanley - Analyst
Okay and just any thoughts as to when you will be back in the term debt market
to maybe term out some of the short-term debt that are you taking on right now?
Is this a second half of '04 type of event?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
The short term debt that we're taking on is 200 of that is under our existing
credit facilities and we've got plenty of capacity there. 225 is under a
acquisition facility. Our expectation is that we would be back in the market in
January time, timing is really dependent on filing of various SEC filings but we
would expect to issue equity to begin reducing that balance.
Eric Olson - Barrow Hanley - Analyst
But term debt would be sometime in the first half of '04? Is that what I'm
hearing?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
Yes.
Eric Olson - Barrow Hanley - Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
But we would not be issuing debt. We're actually looking at issuing equity to
take out the acquisition term loan.
Eric Olson - Barrow Hanley - Analyst
Oh, great, great. Okay. Thank you.
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 12
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
Operator
Thank you. Next we will open the line of Jack Moore with Van Guard. Please go
ahead.
Jack Moore - Van Guard - Analyst
Actually my questions were just answered. Thank you.
Operator
Very good. Thank you. Next we will go to the line of Ron Londe with A.G.
Edwards, please go ahead.
Ron Londe - AG Edwards - Analyst
Thank you. I would like to discuss the outlook for distributions before the
announcement this morning, I think investors generally viewed GulfTerra as
having a very favorable outlook for raising the distribution next year and also
for Enterprise, which has, you know, an advertised goal of about 10% a year. If
I look at the exchange ratios, it looks like that, you know, sometime in the
second half, when this closes, the run rate for Enterprise would be $1.58, or
about 6% higher than it is right now and GulfTerra would be just slightly
higher, marginal increase. Is there room for increases before, you know, the
merger closes? Or what would be the expectation afterwards in raising the
distribution quickly, if you can assume, you know, the cost savings and such?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
The only thing that we have committed to so far, Ron, is to increase our
distribution after the closing of step two, in such a way that the distribution
would be equivalent to what the GulfTerra unit holders are getting today.
Certainly, there is room to do things between now and then but we really, have
not had a chance to look at how that affects our overall financing plan, the
rating agency discussions and that's something we willing looking at very
closely here over the next month or so.
Ron Londe - AG Edwards - Analyst
Also, are there any lock up agreements with Shell or with El Paso concerning
their units that they're going to be holding, going forward?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
On the Shell units, there's no lock, per se. They do have registration rights
but they do have to make sure that it doesn't interfere with our ability to
issue equity. They can always issue along with us, to the extent it doesn't
impair our ability to issue equity. So I'm not sure that that answers your
question, but the nuts and bolts of it is that Shell can do what they want, so
long as it doesn't interfere with our ability to issue equity.
Ron Londe - AG Edwards - Analyst
How about El Paso?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
Yeah there is no lock up at either one.
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Don't lose sight of the fact that they're as cognizant of our combined float,
our individual floats as you are and they are sensitive to the same issues, so
any, you know, large equity disposition by either party would have a significant
result in the value of that investment and they've, both parties have performed
pretty handsomely over the lifespan of their investments, in both our
partnerships.
Ron Londe - AG Edwards - Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you next we will go to the line of Stewart Morel with UBS. Please go
ahead.
Stewart Morel - UBS - Analyst
Hi, it is Stewart Morel. I wanted to ask, in terms of the structure, it is
unclear to me where the actual GP interest in GulfTerra will be held. In the
press release, it sounds like the initial acquisition, it said, is going to be
at an operating subsidiary of the partnership and on the slides, it looks to be,
all at the Enterprise Products Partners level?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 13
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
Right. We did that just in the sake of simplicity, we didn't want to get too
many boxes on the page but the 50% interest that we buy in step one will be held
by a subsidiary of our LP.
Stewart Morel - UBS - Analyst
So that would be Enterprise Products Partners or a subsidiary of that entity?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
It will be a subsidiary of Enterprise Products Partners LP.
Stewart Morel - UBS - Analyst
Okay, very good and the 50% will be contributed down, that will be at Enterprise
Products Partners?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Correct.
Stewart Morel - UBS - Analyst
Okay. The second question I had, has to deal with the make whole contracts shown
at 7%. I know Bob mentioned that they are being renegotiated, I was just curious
on timing and how that might work down over the coming 12 or 24 months.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
You know, like Mike has commented on a number of the questions about how are you
going to operate during the interim period, we have developed a deal structure
that allows, in fact, insists upon both partnerships conducting their business
in the ordinary course of business and working diligently to accommodate both
each other as well as managing our business. Each of us have our own set was
negotiations going on with individual producer or processor customers, both of
us share the same philosophy towards how we're trying to modify our portfolio,
our processing portfolio, I think each of us have been successful in the last
few months, in getting some of these deals renegotiated. We both expect to
continue to be successful in that regard but to put any estimates out there,
other than the very broad estimate of how improved we think the processing
portfolio will be, by the time we get around to closing this deal, I think would
be imprudent.
Stewart Morel - UBS - Analyst
Is it fair to generalize that by say that you would like to renegotiate all of
them with a goal of bringing that down to zero over time, then?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Well, you know, that both of these partnerships have survived and thrived by
being largely fee-based companies and operating assets that generate clear,
sustainable and stable cash flows, so it wouldn't come as any surprise to you
that we continue to work to eliminate the volatility in our cash flows and that
has been inherent in the processing business, to the extent the market allows us
an opportunity to renegotiate contracts, to fixed fee agreements or percentage
of proceeds agreements where we have tried and true methods of managing the
risks associated with changes in price, then we certainly will do that and that
should err to the benefit of our investors.
Stewart Morel - UBS - Analyst
Very good. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next we have a question from the line of Ross Payne with Wachovia.
Please go ahead.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
How are you doing, guys? If you can speak to what your expectation is for the
time frame of getting some of the synergies you noted in the press release?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, Ross, I think that is something that we will be working on during the time
that we're waiting on FTC approval and unit holder approval. Clearly, we've
approached this at a pretty high level but there are some of those synergies
that we think we can capture pretty quickly. I think the majority of them we
ought to be able to get within the first year. Some of them maybe we will get in
the first quarter or so. So, it is hard to really put a time frame on it, with
any level of precision, given the kind of high level nature of looking at the
synergies that are available. I don't know if that helped you out a lot.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 14
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
No, it does, that's fine. Appreciate, that Mike. Also, in terms of the
processing plants you're buying from EP, can you talk to the contract terms,
that those processing plants had on them? And just generally speaking, you know,
how attractive that acquisition was?
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
I didn't really get the question. Well, again we probably don't want to go into
any great detail but when we acquired those plants, at El Paso, back in the year
2000, the plants were operating under what we call very traditional keep whole
or margin sharing agreements. We talked about that publicly at the time. Since
then, we have been making steady progress in renegotiating those contracts with
some of our major producers down in the South Texas area.
And, due to confidentiality, I'm not going to go into any detail, but I will
tell that you we've made good progress in converting and extending the terms of
a number of those contracts, to what we call conditioning mode agreements and I
would like to make the point here, very quickly, that our producer customers are
actively and willingly participating in this transformation of the traditional
processing business. From keep whole to a more of a "for fee" service. They
recognize, just like we do, that the traditional notions of people contracts
were entered into, the fundamentals have changed, and with frequent price spikes
that occur in these gas markets, processing business, simply needs to have a
better economic model.
We've all made that case, people at Enterprise and people at GulfTerra, and El
Paso have been industry leaders in talking about how we need to transform the
processing business. I'm satisfied we're going to continue to make good
progress. I know we've done it in South Texas and I would expect that by the
time we get around to merging these entities, that those contract negotiations
will largely be complete.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
Great. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Thank you. Next we will hear from the line of Sam Roswell with Merrill Lynch.
Please go ahead.
Sam Roswell - Merrill Lynch - Analyst
Good morning. I think most of mine have been asked and answered but is the only
regulatory approval that you anticipate needing FTC?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
I think that's the principal one. There may be some minor other approvals but
none come to mind.
Sam Roswell - Merrill Lynch - Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next is a question from the line of Michael Waldorf with Paulson &
Company. Please go ahead.
Michael Waldorf - Paulson & Company - Analyst
Thank you, gentlemen. If all you guys are waiting for is the SEC proxy and you
have to do the Hart-Scott-Rodino for antitrust, how come you're expecting to
close in the second half of next year? What do you see taking so long?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
We like to think that the FTC process will happen in a matter of 30 days but
we're just being a little bit more conservative.
Michael Waldorf - Paulson & Company - Analyst
Are there any special issues which make you think that it could take as long as
six months?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
No, but it is a large transaction, so we are just giving ourselves some room.
Michael Waldorf - Paulson & Company - Analyst
Okay. Thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. And next we will go to the line of Gilpert Alexander of Darfoe.
Please go ahead.
Gilpert Alexander - Darfoe - Analyst
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 15
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
Good afternoon. Could you give us any guess at this point or target guess where
you would like your debt to be in two, three years?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
In terms of --
Gilpert Alexander - Darfoe - Analyst
Percentage of total capitalization.
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
I think that a reasonable place for it to be is somewhere in the mid-40s.
Gilpert Alexander - Darfoe - Analyst
Mid-40s. And so you will use this 400 to 600 million dollars that you generated
to take --
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
I'm sorry I'm having difficulty hearing you?
Gilpert Alexander - Darfoe - Analyst
The 4 to 600 that Dub talked about you would allocate some of that to debt
reduction?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Absolutely.
Gilpert Alexander - Darfoe - Analyst
Thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. And next we will open the line of Mark Easterbrook of RBC. Please go
ahead.
Mark Easterbrook - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
Good morning guys, a lot of my questions have already been answered but just
quickly the 500 million that are needed to buy back the 13.8 million shares from
El Paso, how are you guys to going to finance that?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
We have not decided yet, Mark. It is likely in step two that we will be in the
public debt markets looking for some of that. We may be issuing additional
equity. We really need to focus more on step two. There is a number of moving
parts, looking at how much of the GulfTerra debt we may refinance, how we do
that will be a function of capacity in the public debt markets, the amount of
equity that we need to raise to have a prudent balance sheet and clearly, we
will need to refinance the existing credit facility at GulfTerra, and that will
probably coincide with the timing of refinancing our existing facilities, so I
think it all comes together in a pretty reasonable time frame.
Mark Easterbrook - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
And then can you guys give us sort of an EBITDA multiple on those nine
processing plants that you guys are acquiring for $150 million?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Not at this point.
Mark Easterbrook - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
Not at this point? And then again, on the FTC issue, I mean if you did get a
fast approval from them, could this close in the first half of next year?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Obviously, if we got the approval, it could.
Mark Easterbrook - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
Okay.
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 16
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to Discuss
Merger
We would need, as I said, to divest ourselves of the pipeline interests that are
subject to the FTC consent orders.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Mike, I actually listened to the El Paso call this morning and Dwight Scott
mentioned that it was in the range of six times EBITDA.
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Fair enough.
Mark Easterbrook - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
Okay. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Thank you. Next we will have a follow-up question from the line of Yves Siegel
of Wachovia. Please go ahead.
Yves Siegel - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
Thanks. Will you still be able to look at other acquisitions that could be in
the market between now and the time that the merger closes?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
I think it depends on the size, and whether it makes sense, but frankly, I think
we've got our hands full for the time being. I think we've got, as Bob said,
with this merger, we've got a tremendous number of organic growth opportunities,
not to say that if something came along that may made a whole lot of sense, that
we wouldn't look at it but I don't see any big acquisitions, activities here.
Yves Siegel - Wachovia Securities - Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
And next we will open the line of David LeBonte with Smith Barney. Please go
ahead.
David LeBonte - Smith Barney - Analyst
Good morning, guys.
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Hi David.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Good morning, Dave.
David LeBonte - Smith Barney - Analyst
This is more of a strategy question. As you look at the growth strategy of the
combined entity, have you thought much about where the focus will be? While
there are similarities there are also differences. For example, there has
obviously been a focus on the NGL business with Enterprise and with GTM, there
has been a focus on developing onshore and offshore bids represence. Perhaps
another example of potential, you know, divergence between the two strategies
would be GulfTerra focusing on platform services, will this, for example,
continue to be a focus going forward? Any help you guy could provide in terms of
an overview of what your thoughts would be regarding operating/growth strategies
at this point?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
David, this is Bob. Let me tackle it first and then Mike can chime in if he
feels like Enterprise has a different view. Having spent much of the last month
together with these guys I think we know each other pretty well. Again, let me
stress my earlier point, we share the same investment strategies, operating
strategies and commitment to customer service. We, like all the businesses that
we're in today, we have not designated any product lines or businesses for
divestiture or liquidation. We like each other's businesses, and we like where
our assets are located. So, job one for this merger is to leverage off of that
combination of assets and combine the best of both worlds into a combined
management team, a combined employee force, obviously, a combined balance sheet
and then a combined business strategy going forward.
I think what you're going to see is an extraordinary set of synergies both cost
savings as well as revenue enhancements that emerge from this transaction
without any designation that we're getting into this business or we're getting
out of that business. And if you couldn't see it on the maps and you didn't hear
it in my voice-over,
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 17
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and GulfTerra Conference Call to
Discuss Merger
then I didn't do a very good job of highlighting what I think are the
extraordinary business growth opportunities that will come in those various
geographic regions that we talked about, or by combining the operations of those
similarly-situated businesses or assets that we will have under one roof.
So, from that standpoint, I know that the Enterprise management share our views
for the importance of the deep water trend in the Gulf of Mexico. I know that we
share their views for the importance of and the industry-leading position they
have in natural gas liquids and petrochemicals and if we can somehow figure out
how to combine those so that it is of one fully-integrated set of assets that
operate to benefit both our investors in terms of lower cost of operations
therefore higher returns, and our customers, because we can provide a broader
suite of services, then I think we will have truly hit the homerun that I'm
expecting. Mike, you want to comment on that?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I echo that. I think one of the things that we noticed early on in the
discussions is that there is relatively little overlap in the businesses and the
assets and we think the businesses are very complimentary to each other, we
think there are tremendous opportunities to create additional value through this
merger.
David LeBonte - Smith Barney - Analyst
Yeah, I guess that was kind of the question, as you envision the entity further
down the road, whether it be two or three years from now and you have a pretty
tremendous Gulf Coast presence at this point with the combination of the two
entities, is this something you perhaps look at trying to develop an equally
strong presence further up in the Rockies, other areas geographically, where do
you see taking this company a couple of years from now?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
We mentioned on previous calls with the acquisition of the mid America and
Seminole systems that there is a tremendous opportunity in the Rocky Mountains
for future growth and it continues to be any area that we will be looking at
over the next few years, we think it provides tremendous opportunity and we also
believe there is a lot of opportunities in deep water Gulf of Mexico with the
merger with GulfTerra. They've got some exciting things that they're looking at.
David LeBonte - Smith Barney - Analyst
Okay. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Next we have a question from the line of Vidic Paol of Goldman Sachs.
Please go ahead.
Vidic Paol - Goldman Sachs - Analyst
Hi, guys. Are you specifically guaranteeing GulfTerra's debt or is that going to
be technically subordinated to Enterprise Product's debt?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
We will be having -- I mean the GulfTerra debt will remain there. We do expect
to do a debt tender. But to the extent that we don't, that debt will remain at
GulfTerra and it will be structurally subordinated to the Enterprise debt.
Vidic Paol - Goldman Sachs - Analyst
So there can be a rate difference shall between the two?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
Yes, there can.
Vidic Paol - Goldman Sachs - Analyst
In terms of incremental debt capacity, at your existing ratings, could you shed
some light on that? Because you mentioned earlier that only part of the 500
million may be debt issuance. Is that existing debt refinancing? Or is there a
possibility of incremental debt?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
We well I think a lot of is fundable and the timing of that is still a bit up in
the air. First and foremost, looking at the $425 million that we paid today, we
are anticipating refinancing that in the equity markets. So, the challenge for
us is to look at between now and the time that we close step two, what other
transactions we've done in the equity or debt capital markets and see how much
additional equity we need to raise to maintain, a BBB flat, B-AA-2 rating, it is
entirely possible that we will have to prefund some of step two before we ever
get there, just depending on the timing and prefunding can in the equity
markets. To the extent, we do not necessarily expect to issue additional equity
after step
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 18
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS PARTNERS L.P. AND GULFTERRA CONFERENCE CALL TO DISCUSS
MERGER
Vidic Paol - Goldman Sachs - Analyst
So keeping mid BBB ratings would be the a primary objective in deciding that?
Michael Creel - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
We maintained that all along that keeping solid investment grade ratings is very
important to the company.
O.S. "Dub" Andras - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - President and Chief
Executive Officer
Let me just echo that the importance of taking advantage of the significantly
lower cost of capital that this combined entity would offer to GulfTerra by
comparison and combining that great capital structure that delivers the lower
cost of capital due to the cap on the GP splits as well as the historically
better rating and credit profile that Enterprise has had over GulfTerra,
combining that with this tremendous suite of investment opportunities is the
real reason for doing this transaction. So let's be clear about that. This
entity will be very focused on maintaining its credit rating going forward.
Vidic Paol - Goldman Sachs - Analyst
Randy, one last question. You know, clearly, it makes a lot of strategic sense
to do this. You're committed to your investment grade ratings, then why are the
agencies in the first step when you are going to be issuing all equity to fund
this, going to change the outlook to negative? I mean I know there is a
negative, I mean change it one more notch.
Randy Burkhalter - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Director of Investor
Relations
I think they want an opportunity to come in and review the transaction, I mean
it is a large transaction. There is a lot of equity that just with the value of
the equity that will be exchanged, with the GTM unit, there is a big equity
component of the total consideration, so I think they just want an opportunity
to just come in and review the entire transaction. And I think it is fair to say
that they would also like to see us execute.
Vidic Paol - Goldman Sachs - Analyst
Right, right. So it is more like they want to see progress in issuing that as
opposed to the concept.
Randy Burkhalter - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Director of Investor
Relations
Yep, and in the press release we did point out that we are looking to issue 100
million of class D units, Enterprise will, here in the next, you know, here in
the next week. So that would be equity that would come in, and be applied to
this 425 million that we paid today.
Vidic Paol - Goldman Sachs - Analyst
Thank you, guys.
Operator
Thank you. Next we will have a follow-up from the line of Greg Redford with Cafe
Financial. Please go ahead.
Greg Redford - Cafe Financial - Analyst
Thank you. Just to be clear on the regulatory approvals, is there no approval
required from FERK or from any state bodies?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
Remember, there is not a lot, I have emphasized a few times, there is not a lot
of duplication in assets, there is no FERK asset touching another FERK asset
that hasn't touched it already.
Greg Redford - Cafe Financial - Analyst
And at the state level?
Robert Phillips - GulfTerra Energy Partners - President and Chief Executive
Officer
None that we're aware of.
Greg Redford - Cafe Financial - Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you and speakers, we have no one else queued up at this time. Would you
like to take another opportunity to have any more questions?
Randy Burkhalter - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Director of Investor
Relations
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 19
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.
Final Transcript
EPD - ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS PARTNERS L.P. AND GULFTERRA CONFERENCE CALL TO DISCUSS
MERGER
Dave this is Randy. I think that's pretty much all the time that we have today.
If there are any follow-up questions we can take them offline.
Operator
Terrific. Thank you.
Randy Burkhalter - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Director of Investor
Relations
Dave, do you want to give the replay information?
Operator
Yes. One moment, please. Ladies and gentlemen, this conference will be available
for replay, pardon me, after 2:00 p.m. today and running through December 22nd
at midnight. You may access the AT&T executive play back service at any time, by
dialing 1-800-475-6701 and entering the access code 714201. International
participants may dial 320-365-3844. Those numbers once again, are 1-800-475-6701
and 320-365-3844 and entering the access code 714201. Thank you, speakers, back
to you.
Randy Burkhalter - Enterprise Products Partners L.P. - Director of Investor
Relations
Thank you. That's all we have today. Thank you for joining our call.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for
your participation and for using AT&T executive teleconference and you may now
disconnect.
DISCLAIMER
CCBN reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other
information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such
changes.
In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may
make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of
items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and
involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those
stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors
and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent
SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the
assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the
assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no
assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will
be realized.
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT TRANSCRIPTS IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF
THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE
AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION, THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR
INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. IN NO
WAY DOES CCBN OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY
INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS
WEB SITE OR IN ANY EVENT TRANSCRIPT. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE
COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE
MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.
(C) 2003, CCBN, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
CCBN StreetEvents streetevents@ccbn.com 617.603.7900 www.streetevents.com 20
(C) 2003 CCBN.com, Inc. Republished with permission. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written consent of CCBN.com, Inc.