WILLIAMS completes stock purchase in Barrett takeover

DENVER (AP) _ Williams Cos. announced Tuesday that it has completed the purchase of 16.7 million shares of Barrett Resources Corp. stock as part of its takeover of Barrett. <br><br>The shares accepted

Tuesday, June 12th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DENVER (AP) _ Williams Cos. announced Tuesday that it has completed the purchase of 16.7 million shares of Barrett Resources Corp. stock as part of its takeover of Barrett.

The shares accepted for purchase represent about 50 percent of the Barrett shares that were outstanding at the time of Williams' $73-per-share tender offer, which expired at 11 p.m. CDT Monday.

A preliminary count showed about 21.1 million Barrett shares were validly transferred and not withdrawn. About 13.7 million additional shares were tendered pursuant to notices of guaranteed delivery.

Williams, a Tulsa, Okla.,-based energy trader and pipeline operator, announced May 7 it would buy Barrett for $2.5 billion in cash and stock. Its offer topped a $2 billion hostile bid by the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group.

Shell dropped its effort after Williams' offer.

Barrett decided to put itself up for sale last month after rejecting Shell's initial offer.

Shell initially offered $55 a share for Barrett, valuing the company at about $1.8 billion, but later sweetened its offer to $60 a share. Analysts, however, predicted Barrett stock was worth between $65 and $75 a share.

Williams will pay $73 a share for 50 percent of Barrett's outstanding stock, then pay 1.767 shares for each remaining Barrett share. Williams will also assume $300 million in Barrett debt.

At midday Tuesday, Williams shares fell 98 cents to $36.96 on the New York Stock Exchange. Barrett shares fell $5.20 to $65.07 on the NYSE.