24/7 Wall St.

The bus is filling up with energy industry passengers wanting to create a master limited partnership (MLP) from their midstream assets. Earlier this week Devon (NYSE:DVN) got on-board and today, Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) announced that it is placing its natural gas pipelines into a new MLP. WMB said that proceeds from the IPO will be used to fund growth projects and for "general corporate purposes." In August 2005, WMB completed an IPO for another MLP, Willliams Partners L.P. (NYSE:WPZ), and WMB noted in this announcement that WPZ unitholders have realized a return of 137% since that IPO.

WMB also announced a $1B stock buyback, which brings its total buybacks to just over $10B from a board-authorized total of $20B. WMB also announced an agreement with Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) in May to sell essentially all of its electric power generation assets to BSC for about $512MM.

The primary asset in the new MLP will be WMB’s Northwest pipeline, a 3,900-mile bi-directional system that supplies the Pacific Northwest with natural gas from the San Juan Basin, Canada, and the northern Rockies. WMB is not including its Transco system, which hauls gas from the Gulf Coast to the U.S. northeast, nor is the Gulfstream pipeline, from Mississippi to central Florida. WMB’s Transco pipeline is the jewel in its midstream assets. It serves a huge market along the Atlantic seaboard and is close enough to the coast that if LNG terminals are ever built, Transco is a natural connection point to move that gas to northeast markets.

In the past 5 years, WMB stock has risen from a low of $1.40 in October 2002, to yesterday’s close at $34.39. Today’s news bumped the share price by $1.56 almost instantly, and that is good news for WMB shareholders. But the company’s P/E ratio for the trailing twelve months is 66.36. That would be dot.com territory for a company with a mean target price of $35.90. The saving grace: a $21 Billion market cap and a 2007-forward P/E of 26 if it hits targets.

Paul Ausick
July 20, 2007