Profitshop

Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) agreed to buy all the publicly traded units in Regency Energy Partners LP (RGP), a pipeline company that it controls, in a deal that values the target at about $18 billion including debt. The cash-and-stock deal offers Regency investors $26.89 a unit, a 13 percent premium based on the Jan. 23 closing price, the companies said in a joint statement today. Regency holders will get 0.4066 units of Energy Transfer plus a cash payment of 32 cents a unit. Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) controls Regency through ownership of its general partner and already owns about 22 percent of the traded units, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The deal is the latest attempt to simplify the often complex structures of pipeline companies. Billionaire Kelcy Warren, 59, is chairman and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, as well as chairman and the biggest shareholder of Energy Transfer Equity, which controls both Energy Transfer and Regency. Last year, fellow pipeline

British exporters are taking a knock from the sluggishness of the euro area, leaving consumers fueling much of the fire behind the expansion. Households ramped up spending in stores at the fastest pace in more than a decade in the fourth quarter, and data Tuesday will show how much that checked the impact of weak external demand. Economists forecast growth of 0.6 percent in the three months, down from 0.7 percent in the third quarter. While the buildup to the general election in less than four months may weigh on confidence, further stimulus may reverse the cooling trend. The European Central Bank will pump $1.3 trillion into the economy of Britain’s biggest trading partner, while a slump in oil prices and strengthening wage growth are handing Britons the spending power they’ve been missing for years. “Growth is pulling back but the recovery hasn’t stumbled,” said Victoria Clarke, an economist at Investec Securities in London. “We’re expecting an improvement in Europe and oil might

Oil fell from the lowest closing price in almost six years amid signs that Saudi Arabia’s new king will maintain its production policy, bolstering speculation that a global glut will persist. Futures dropped as much as 2.7 percent in New York, extending last week’s 6.4 percent slide. King Salman, who took the Saudi throne on Jan. 23, pledged to maintain the policies of his predecessor. U.S. inventories climbed to the highest level for December since 1930, the American Petroleum Institute reported. Greek voters handed election victory to Syriza, a party that’s pledged to end austerity and renegotiate an international bailout. Oil slumped almost 60 percent since June as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries resisted calls to cut output and the U.S. pumped at the fastest pace in more than three decades. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter, has chosen not to reduce supply and counts instead on lower prices to stimulate demand, according to Mohammad Al Sabban, an advise

Spanish producer prices plunged the most in more than five years last month, adding to concerns that the economy risks falling into a deflationary spiral. Prices of goods leaving factories, refineries and mines dropped 3.7 percent in December from a year earlier, the National Statistics Institute in Madrid said today. Economists forecast a fall of 3.5 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Prices fell 1.1 percent from the previous month. “The drop in oil prices is having a knock-on effect on producer prices, which are closely linked to energy prices,” said Estefania Ponte, an economist at BNP Paribas Personal Investors in Madrid. The Spanish government led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has repeatedly denied the country is facing deflation, arguing that falling prices provide a boost in real income for Spaniards and domestic demand has accelerated in a predominantly export-led recovery. Ponte said that Spanish private consumption is growing at more than 2.5 percent. “This

Whether or not Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) has BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY) in its sights, it should spend some of its $63 billion of cash on takeovers. Samsung, which has an alliance with BlackBerry, this month denied reports it proposed buying the Canadian smartphone maker for as much as $7.5 billion. Even so, a takeover would give Samsung the software to help its products communicate, according to Current Analysis Inc. The $190 billion South Korean conglomerate makes dozens of consumer goods, from phones and televisions to vacuum cleaners and ovens. What it needs is technology to link all the devices together online in the wireless homes of the future. Other potential targets include Atmel Corp. (ATML) and Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. (FSL), whose chips help devices talk to each other, said CM Research Ltd. “Samsung is a hardware company caught up in a software revolution,” said Cyrus Mewawalla, managing director at London-based CM Research. “So it needs to make acquisitions.” Th

Singapore’s manufacturers aren’t catching any breaks. Industrial production has declined for three of the past four months amid faltering global demand, data released Monday in Singapore showed, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says he’s not ready to let up on foreign-worker curbs that have led to a labor crunch. “Nothing in the external environment suggests an improvement in the industrial production output,” said Irvin Seah, a Singapore-based economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. “The labor market will remain tight and mismatch in the labor market will continue to exert upward pressure on wages.” Lee is persisting with a plan to restructure the economy by slowing the inflow of cheap foreign workers and boosting productivity, which has raised business costs. That’s compounding the challenge for companies grappling with an uneven global recovery and, in oil-related industries, falling crude prices. Industrial production fell 1.9 percent in December from a year earlier, according t

The euro slipped with U.S. equity-index futures, while Treasuries rallied as Greek voters handed victory to a party that’s pledged to renegotiate the terms of an international bailout. Asian stocks dropped with crude oil and industrial metals. The 19-nation euro dropped 0.3 percent to $1.1172 by 2 p.m. in Tokyo, and touched a more-than 11-year low. The yield on 30-year Treasuries fell to a record. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures sank 0.6 percent and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) lost 0.4 percent. U.S. crude declined 1.2 percent and nickel slid 1.9 percent in London. China’s yuan headed for its biggest two-day drop since 2008 versus the dollar. Greece’s Syriza won a more decisive victory than polls predicted, coming within two seats of an absolute majority with most votes counted. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has pledged to secure a writedown of the nation’s debt and end austerity measures, policies that outgoing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras warned could trigger an “ac