Some ThoughtsI agree with other posters that managment has been less than honest with shareholders in that the company strategy was described as hitting "singles and doubles" as opposed to mega projects/acquisitions. So it remains to be seen whether the "Grownups" on The Street hold this against ENB or not.
In terms of the pricing of the bought deal, from experience over the years working on The Street, the price is not a surprise to me and if anything, given the size of the bought deal, the price is actually higher than what I would have thought which IMO is a good thing.
In terms of the asset being bought, the price to me seems to be quite fair and IMO ENB has gotten a good price. By comparison, I encourage people to compare he parameters of this deal to the Altagas purchase of Washington Gas. This purchase by Altagas has proven to be a great deal for its shareholders. In relative terms it would seem to me that ENB paid less than Altagas relative to the numbers of customers for the utility.
With respect to pricing, the market was valuing ENB at in and around 25 times earnings. Their purchase from Dominion prices the asset in the high teens. Based on this, it would appear that the purchase would be accretive to the valuation of ENB which over the longer run means that it was a good acquisition.
Further, ENB knows how to run gas utility companies and so this risk is lower than if they getting into a completely new business without any expertise. Buying the gas utilities also lowers the mix of assets away from the lquids business which over the longer run will likely be a slow growth business if not a declining business depending on what happens regarding penetration of EVs into the US market over time and new technologies which lower the demand for oil in petrochemicals.