In a decision that may echo through corporate boardrooms and shareholder meetings for years, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville on Tuesday granted preliminary approval for EQT Corp.’s $167.5 million settlement, marking a pivotal moment in a long-running legal battle over the company’s 2017 merger with Rice Energy.
Judge Colville noted that he expects to “likely be able to finally approve the settlement … as being fair, reasonable, and adequate to the class.” The hearing to finalize the approval has been scheduled for October 30.
The High-Stakes Backstory
At the center of the dispute is EQT’s blockbuster $6.7 billion acquisition of Rice Energy, a deal pitched as transformative for the natural gas giant’s holdings in the Marcellus Shale region. But investors allege that the merger’s promised synergies were little more than corporate smoke and mirrors—artificially inflating EQT’s stock price and ultimately eroding shareholder value.
Led by institutional investors including the Government of Guam Retirement Fund, the Northeast Carpenters Annuity Fund, and the Northeast Carpenters Pension Fund, the plaintiffs claimed that EQT misrepresented its operational efficiencies, leading to inflated trading prices and misleading the market.
