The Oklahoman

Williams Cos. stockholde­rs OK buyout of Williams Partners

- BY MIKE AVERILL

TULSA — Williams Cos. stockholde­rs on Thursday approved the purchase of Williams Partners LP.

The merger is expected to close Friday with Williams Partners common units no longer being publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange beginning Monday.

Williams Cos. announced in May its agreement for the all stock-for-unit transactio­n, valued at $10.5 billion.

Tulsa-based Williams and Williams Partners announced the deal following a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decision earlier this year to revise a tax policy that permitted master limited partnershi­p interstate oil and natural gas pipelines to maintain an income tax allowance in costof-service states.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Williams will acquire all 256 million public outstandin­g units of Williams Partners at a fixed exchange ratio of 1.494 Williams shares for each public unit of Williams Partners.

Williams employs more 5,000 throughout the company, while Williams Partners does not have a separate workforce. Williams employees who work in support of Williams Partners assets will not be affected by the deal other than they will be managing assets that are 100 percent owned by Williams once the deal closes, said Keith Isbell, Williams spokesman.

Williams owns about 74 percent of Williams Partners, which owns and operates more than 33,000 miles of pipelines, including the Transco pipeline.

Williams Partners' operations touch nearly 30 percent of U.S. natural gas.

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