The decision to buy Copano Energy LLC (Nasdaq: CPNO) for about $4.9 billion will likely give the shares of the buyer, Kinder Morgan Energy Partner LP (NYSE: KMP), a mild boost, according to an independent analyst.

“The deal appears to offer a very slight accretion to KMP upon closing and is incrementally positive over the long-term,” according to a report from Raymond James & Associates Inc. The deal will also extend Kinder Morgan’s footprint in the active Eagle Ford shale.

Under the terms of the deal announced earlier this week, Copano unitholders will receive 0.4563 KMP units for each of their Copano unit, a value of about $40.91 per Copano common unit. That price represents a 23.5% premium to the closing price of Copano units on Jan. 29.

The deal still requires the approval of Copano unitholders, although the market has already voiced its approval of the deal. Copano’s unit prices rose nearly 15% on the day of the announcement and another 2.45% on the following day.

Kinder Morgan will also assume about $1.1 billion in debt and will pay about $3.27 billion to purchase the common units of Copano.

The purchase price represents about 15 to 16 times the projected 2013 EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for Copano, Raymond James reported. At that price, Kinder Morgan shareholders should see an appreciation per unit earnings of about 10 cents in 2014, according to the report.

Copano, a Houston-based midstream natural gas company with operations primarily in Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming, owns and manages natural gas gathering lines, processing and treating facilities, and NGL fractionation facilities.

The company also owns an interest in or operates about 6,900 miles of pipelines with 2.7 billion cubic (Bcf) feet per day of natural gas throughput capacity and nine processing plants with more than 1 Bcf of processing capacity and 315 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day of treating capacity.

"As a result of this acquisition, we will be able to pursue incremental development in the Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas, gain entry into the Barnett shale Combo in north Texas and the Mississippi Lime and Woodford shales in Oklahoma,” said KMP chairman and chief executive Richard D. Kinder.

“We continue to be bullish on the domestic shale plays and believe they will drive substantial future growth at KMP. Copano's assets are very complementary to ours, as KMP is principally a pipeline transportation and storage company, while Copano is primarily a fee-based gathering, processing and fractionation player. Broadening our midstream assets will allow us to offer a wider array of services to our customers," he said.

"Through this transaction, Copano will become part of a larger, investment-grade organization with stable cash flows and the financial resources to fund our increasing number of high-return growth projects. We are committed to continuing to support our customers with the highest quality service, and expect that KMP's size and scale will allow us to provide even more value for customers," said Copano president and chief executive Bruce Northcutt.

"Copano is already executing on a substantial backlog of expansion projects for which it has secured customer commitments and is exploring a significant amount of projects incremental to these," Kinder added. "Given the growth in cash flow that will come from the projects already in progress with existing customer commitments, we expect the multiple of EBITDA paid for Copano to decline to the very low double digits over the next few years, and considering the growth opportunities beyond that we expect continued attractive EBITDA growth from these assets thereafter."

Kinder Morgan stated in a prepared release the acquisition of Copano will boost cash flows available for distribution to its unitholders upon closing. The general partner of KMP, Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI), has agreed to forego a portion of its incremental incentive distributions in 2013 in an amount dependent on the time of closing.

Additionally, KMI intends to forgo $120 million in 2014, $120 million in 2015, $110 million in 2016 and annual amounts thereafter decreasing by $5 million per year from this level. The transaction is expected to be modestly accretive to KMP in 2013, given the partial year, and about $0.10 per unit accretive for at least the next five years beginning in 2014.

"Copano's cash flow is largely and increasingly fee-based, and our accretion projections are based on commodity prices consistent with the current forward curve for the portion that is sensitive to commodity prices," Kinder Morgan stated.

"We anticipate retaining the vast majority of Copano's approximately 415 employees," Kinder said. "This transaction is about producing future cash flow and expanding our midstream services footprint."

Copano is headquartered in Houston and has a sizable office in Tulsa, Okla., which KMP intends to maintain.

Upon closing, KMP will own 100% of Eagle Ford Gathering, which is currently a joint venture with Copano. The plant, located about 100 miles west of Houston, provides gathering, transportation and processing services to natural gas producers in the Eagle Ford shale. Eagle Ford Gathering comprises approximately 400 miles of pipelines (including its capacity rights in certain KMP pipelines) with capacity to gather and process more than 700,000 million British thermal units (MMBtu) per day.

Citi acted as financial advisor for KMP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and Bracewell & Giuliani acted as legal counsel to KMP. Barclays Capital Inc. and Jefferies & Co. Inc. gave financial advice to Copano, while Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz gave legal counsel to Copano.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE: KMP) is one of the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnerships in America. It owns an interest in or operates approximately 46,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. The general partner of KMP is owned by Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI). The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2013.