Williams improves terms of $50B MLP merger deal

• Williams Cos. (NYSE:WMB) has sweetened the terms of an agreement to combine two MLPs controls, Williams Partners (WPZ) and Access Midstream Partners (ACMP), in a move that will create a pipeline operator with a combined enterprise value of $50B.
• Investors who own WPZ units will receive ~0.87 of a unit of ACMP for each WPZ unit they own, up from the initial offer of 0.85; prior to the tie-up, existing ACMP holders will receive more units of the partnership.
• Williams expects the merger to be completed early next year, with the new entity set to distribute $3.65/unit in 2015.
• "This is another big step toward our goal of becoming the leading natural-gas infrastructure provider in North America," Williams CEO Alan Armstrong says. (PR)