Willams Narrows Loss, Williams Partners Swings to Profit

By Anne Steele 

Williams Cos. reported a narrower loss in the final quarter of the year, while pipeline giant Williams Partners LP swung to a profit, helped by lower costs.

Over all, Williams posted a loss of $15 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $715 million, or 95 cents a share.

The comparable 2015 quarter was hurt by a $1.1 billion pretax impairment of goodwill and $698 million of lower pretax impairments of equity-method investments and other assets. The improvement was also thanks to lower operating and maintenance and overhead expenses and higher commodity margins.

Excluding certain items, adjusted per-share earnings from continuing operations rose to 17 cents from a penny a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for adjusted per-share earnings of 18 cents.

Williams Partners, meanwhile, reported a profit of $145 million, or 24 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $1.64 billion, or $2.68 a share.

Williams Partners backed its 2017 guidance for capital and investment expenditures between $2.1 billion and $2.8 billion, including $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion related to the expansion of the Transco natural-gas pipeline system.

Write to Anne Steele at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 15, 2017 17:46 ET (22:46 GMT)

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