Williams scraps upstream IPO

No more: IPO plans halted for Williams

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By Staff & news wires

 18 October 2011 22:42 GMT

Williams said Tuesday that volatile equity markets have caused it to forgo plans for an initial public offering for its exploration and production businesses, a report Tuesday said.

Instead, the energy company will spin off the upstream segment as a separate public company called WPX Energy and owned by Williams shareholders, Dow Jones reported.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma, company had planned originally to launch the IPO by the end of 2011, but wild gyrations in the stock market have made a valuation difficult to gauge.

The spun-off exploration and production company will be created by year's end, chief executive Alan Armstrong said in a statement.

"The continued instability and weakness in equity markets, especially for new issuances, makes the IPO of WPX Energy…

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