Williams To Acquire Williams Partners In $10.5 Bln Deal - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Williams (WMB) and Williams Partners L.P. (WPZ) announced an agreement under which Williams will acquire all of the outstanding public common units of Williams Partners in an all stock-for-unit transaction at a 1.494 ratio of Williams common shares per unit of Williams Partners. The transaction is valued at $10.5 billion.

Williams will issue approximately 382.5 million shares in connection with the proposed transaction, representing approximately 31.6 percent of the total shares outstanding of the combined entity. Following consummation of the merger, Williams Partners will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams. The merger is expected to close in the fall of 2018.

For Williams, the transaction is immediately accretive to cash available for dividends. Alan Armstrong, Williams' CEO, said: "This transaction simplifies our corporate structure, streamlines governance and maintains investment-grade credit ratings. The transaction will allow Williams to directly invest the excess coverage in our expanding portfolio of large-scale, fully-contracted infrastructure projects that will drive significant EBITDA growth without the need to issue equity for the broad base of projects currently included in our guidance."