The Driving Force Behind the Tallgrass Energy IPO

The midstream natural gas corporation owns about 26.4% of the membership interests in Tallgrass Equity, which in turn owns the incentive distribution rights and approximately 1.37% of the general partner interest in Tallgrass Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: TEP). Tallgrass Energy G.P. plans to use proceeds from the IPO and additional debt proceeds to acquire 20 million Tallgrass Energy common units, representing a 32.75% limited partner interest in the exploration and production company.

Tallgrass Energy G.P. originally planned to sell 35.3 million shares at the IPO, but demand allowed the company to raise the total number of shares on offer to 41.5 million, as well as the IPO price. Underwriters have an option to purchase up to 6.225 million additional shares. Joint bookrunners for the offering included Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities. Co-managers were Baird, Scotiabank/Howard Weil, Stifel, Tudor Pickering Holt and U.S. Capital Advisors.

Before the Tallgrass Energy G.P. IPO on Thursday, the largest U.S. IPO so far in 2015 had been Columbia Pipeline Partners L.P. (NYSE: CPPL), which priced at $23 per partnership unit (above its expected range of $19 to $21) and sold 46.8 million units, up from a planned 40 million. Columbia’s IPO raised about $1.1 billion in gross proceeds, according to IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital.

Shares of Tallgrass Energy G.P. traded down about 0.9% early Friday morning. The stock’s opening day range was $30.08 to $32.25.

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