Enbridge Inc T.ENB

Orderly transition of a billion shares

[Marner16]

auto:

My mistake.  Your post left me with the impression that you were taking the Brookfield offer to IPL shareholders personally.

I wouldn't blame IPL shareholders for being upset with what happened in the past year, but their anguish should be directed towards IPL management.  Blaming Brookfield is like hating a new neighbour who bought the house next door out of foreclosure.  Blaming the new neighbour for being opportunistic to a situation seems misplaced. 

If Brookfield or Berkshire or somebody else has picked up nearly a billion shares of ENB, then good on them for recognizing the opportunity.  Nobody is twisting the arms of the sellers.

My gut/spidey senses tell me that ENB has known about the sales from the beginning.  Heck, if I figured it out by the middle of last August, surely the suits at ENB knew as well.  When I called ENB's IR team in September, they were "surprised" by my observations.  Right!!!!!

I hold ENB's management in high esteem, which is a major reason why ENB is a core holding for me.  I suspect they were well aware that attitudes were changing towards anything oil and they planned ahead.  It wouldn't surprise me at all if ENB has facilitated the quiet reallocation of up to 50% of their shares from institutions that wanted out to buyers that expect ENB will perform very well over the long term.

When institutions want out, it behooves the target company to find a buyer to help accommodate the exchange for a number of reasons. 

Institutions don't necessarily sell because they no longer like a company.  Maybe their mandates dictate a move to green.  Or maybe they are rebalancing their portfolio. Or maybe they have identified a better opportunity in the short term.  Or maybe they have redemption requirements that dictate selling assets to cover the redemptions and they choose to liquidate a security that they know won't rock the share price.  These are just some of the reasons for selling.

If ENB mgmt has acted as a good corporate citizen and accommodated institutional sellers, the "solid" won't be forgotten.  

It wouldn't surprise me at all if ENB has played a significant role in overseeing the orderly transition of close to 50% of their shares from multiple sellers to multiple buyers.  It is not unusual for companies to play the roll of facilitating buyers and sellers.

It also wouldn't surprise me at all if ENB's mgmt team saw the writing on the wall and realized that they needed to focus on renewables so that the sellers of today would be potential buyers in the future.  

And finally, it wouldn't surprise me at all if a single buyer (through multipe parties) has quietly picked up a huge chunk of ENB shares.  If there has been an acquistion that eventually gets reported, they will have to provide a takeover offer by law.  However, I very much doubt the buyer would want to take over the management of ENB because I don't see how anyone could do any better. 

If the acquistion of a friendly accumulation of shares by somebody with deep pockets whose  goals fit in with ENB mgmt's agenda, it is not hard to envision ENB mgmt workng with the buyer.

[autofocus111]

Marner, I was referring to the back door scheme that BAM used to accumulate its position in IPL while evading disclosure. This was done via swaps, and requires an arrangement with investment banks who put the holdings in their name to hide the fact it's actually BAM that is buying, If, as I suspect, this is what an entity is doing with ENB (and why 13-F's filings have not revealed

[Marner16]

auto:  The industry uses the "5 private sellers" exception to circumvent the intent of the existing 13F rules of disclosure.  It is pointless to blame the buyer or its cohorts.  Until the exception gets removed, the practice will continue, at which point the industry will find another loophole.  The stock market is not a level playing field.  Never was and

[autofocus111]

Marner First time I hear of " the "5 private sellers" exception" Got a link that explains what this refers to?

[Marner16]

auto: Here is the first link that popped up where you can start:  https://www.mondaq.com/advicecentre/content/3250/Canadian-Take-Over-Bid-Rules-Overview--Part-II I ventured down the rabbit hole a bit on this topic last fall when I saw what was going on with the crosses.  Suffice it to say that a well planned (and financed) accumulation by a buyer can legally circumvent the reporting

[ckwong]

We, small potatoes, can only follow the money, not against it.

[Fantome]

This post has been removed in accordance with Community Policy

[autofocus111]

Thanks Marner. Given ENB's recent indication that they would consider share buybacks in their capital allocation, it follows that management feels shares are undervalued. If a hostile takeover bid that undervalues the company does emerge, ENB will be well within its rights to adopt a poison pill to block it. If it is by a foreign-controlled entity the Canadian government may also raise