By Alison Sider
Natural-gas pipeline giant Williams Cos. has rejected an
unsolicited buyout offer worth $48 billion but is open to other
offers, the company said Sunday.
Williams said it was approached about an all-stock deal valued
at $64 a share, which is a 33% premium to where its shares closed
on Friday. The company said it won't accept the offer, but has
retained Barclays and Lazard to pursue alternatives, including a
merger, a sale of the company or simply continuing on its current
path.
Williams didn't identify who made the buyout offer.
"The Williams Board carefully considered the unsolicited
proposal and determined that it significantly undervalues Williams
and would not deliver value commensurate with what Williams expects
to achieve on a stand-alone basis and through other growth
initiatives, including the pending acquisition of" Williams
Partners, the company said in a statement.
In May, Williams said it planned to absorb its subsidiary,
Williams Partners LP, in a $13.8 billion deal. At the time, the
company said that combining and simplifying its corporate structure
would make it more efficient and better able to expand in the
future.
On Sunday, Williams said the offer it rejected was contingent on
that simplification process being called off.
Shares of Williams Cos. have risen 7.8% so far this year to
$48.34. Shares of the partnership that Williams controls closed
Friday at $53.25, up 4.1% this year.
Williams has said its consolidation deal would likely close
during the third quarter, giving the combined company an enterprise
value of $84 billion.
Companies that own pipelines and other energy infrastructure
have been somewhat insulated from the dramatic drop in the price of
oil and gas over the last year. That is because they tend to
operate based on fixed-fee, long-term contracts that pay the same
amount of money whether energy prices are high or low.
But Williams is also exposed to the plummeting price of some
fuel known as natural gas liquids, which include propane and
ethane. In addition to pipelines, Williams owns many natural gas
processing facilities, which earned slimmer margins this year.
Analysts have been predicting that energy transportation and
storage companies would combine in a series of mergers and
acquisitions.
"It's game on for consolidation and empire building," said
Robert W. Baird analyst Ethan Bellamy. He suggested Kinder Morgan
Inc. or Energy Transfer Partners L.P. as the likely candidates
behind the unsolicited take over offer.
Kinder Morgan declined to comment. Energy Transfer didn't
immediately respond to requests for comment.
Williams's roots in moving fuel around North America go back to
1919, but it was the 1995 acquisition of Transco Energy Co. that
expanded its system to the U.S. East Coast and made it one of the
nation's largest natural gas transporters. Today, Tulsa-based
Williams owns and operates 13,600 miles of pipelines across North
America.
Write to Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com
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