August 4, 2015 (Shareholders Foundation) - An investor who currently holds shares of Markwest Energy Partners LP (NYSE:MWE), filed a lawsuit in effort to halt the proposed takeover of Markwest Energy Partners LP. by MPLX LP for a value of $78.64 per share.
The plaintiff alleges that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties owed to NYSE:MWE stockholders by agreeing to sell Markwest Energy Partners LP too cheaply via an unfair process to MPLX LP.

On July 13, 2015, MPLX LP (NYSE: MPLX) and Markwest Energy Partners LP (NYSE:MWE) announced they have signed a merger agreement whereby Markwest Energy Partners LP (NYSE:MWE) would become a wholly owned subsidiary of MPLX. Under the terms of the merger agreement, which was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of the general partners of MPLX and Markwest Energy Partners LP (NYSE:MWE), the common unitholders of MarkWest would receive 1.09 MPLX common units and a one-time cash payment of approximately $3.37 per MarkWest common unit, for total consideration of $78.64 per Markwest Energy Partners LP (NYSE:MWE) common unit, based on fully diluted units currently outstanding and the closing price of MPLX's units on July 10, 2015.

However, the plaintiff claims that the proposed consideration NYSE:MWE shareholders will receive is grossly inadequate and undervalues Markwest Energy Partners LP. Indeed, at least one analyst has set the high target price for NYSE:MWE shares at $86.00 per share and NYSE:MWE shares traded during September 2014 as high as $80.09 per share. Furthermore, Markwest Energy Partners LP reported that its annual Total Revenue rose from over $1.66 billion in 2013 to over $2.17 billion in 2014 and that its respective Net Income increased from $38.08 million to $133.88 million. In addition, the plaintiff claims that the process is also unfair to NYSE:MWE stockholders.