Oneok To Buy The Rest Of Oneok Partners It Doesn't Own In a $9.3 Billion Deal

Natural gas company Oneok Inc. announced Wednesday a deal to buy the rest of the master limited partnership Oneok Partners L.P. that it doesn't already own for $9.3 billion worth of Oneok common stock. Under terms of the deal, each Oneok Partners share not owned by Oneok will be converted into 0.985 shares of Oneok, which would imply a price of $54.28, or about 26% above Tuesday's closing price of $43.14. Oneok, which had owned 41.2% of Oneok Partners share, expects the deal to close in the second quarter of 2017, and immediately add to distributable cash. Oneok expects to raise its quarterly dividend by 21% to 74.5 cents a share. At Tuesday's closing prices, the new annual dividend rate of $2.98 would imply a dividend yield of 5.41%, compared with the aggregate S&P 500 dividend yield of 2.07%, according to FactSet. Oneok Partners' stock has rallied 62% over the past 12 months, while Oneok shares have more than doubled and the S&P 500 has climbed 18%.