Williams Partners (WPZ) Plans To Repay $750M Senior Notes

Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE:WPZ) recently announced the pricing of senior notes. The notes, with principal amount of $800 million, will likely mature in 2048.

The senior notes will carry an interest rate of 4.85% per year and are priced at 99.515% of par value. Williams Partners expects the notes offering to conclude by Mar 5, 2018. Proceeds from the offerings are expected to be utilized for repaying senior notes, scheduled to mature by 2024, with the principal amount of $750 million carrying 4.875% interest rate. Part of the proceeds will also be used for general partnership activities.

In a separate announcement, the partnership expressed its willingness to redeem senior notes carrying 4.875% interest rate. The notes are scheduled to mature in 2024. Per the notice of redemption, the outstanding notes will be redeemed by Williams Partners on Mar 28, 2018 for cash.

Tulsa, OK-based Williams Partners’ natural gas infrastructure assets comprise pipelines that spread over more than 33,000 miles. The rapidly-expanding pipeline networks carry the highest volumes of natural gas in the United States from the best supply basins in North America.

The partnership’s capital budget is focused primarily on the expansion of Transco pipeline system — the largest interstate natural gas pipeline network in the nation — and other projects that will likely provide sustainable and steady fee-based revenues over a length of time.

Meanwhile, Williams Partners reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter 2017 earnings. Moreover, the partnership’s debt-to-capitalization ratio is 41.6% compared with 40.2% for the industry. Williams Partners also lost 7.6% over the past year, underperforming the industry’s 6.4% decline.

Williams Partners carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A few better-ranked players in the energy sector are Statoil (OL:STL) ASA (NYSE:STO) , Pioneer Natural Resources Company (NYSE:PXD) and Concho Resources Inc. (NYSE:CXO) . All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Headquartered in Stavanger, Norway, Statoil is a major international integrated energy player. The company is expected to witness year-over-year earnings growth of 17.1% in 2018.

Headquartered at Irving, TX, Pioneer Natural Resources is an upstream energy firm. The company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 66.9% for the last four quarters.

Headquartered in Midland, TX, Concho is also an upstream energy company. The firm will likely see year-over-year earnings growth of 73.2% in 2018.

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