(Adds HNA Airport Holding and Dynasty Financial Partners; Updates Ant Financial, Wal-Mart, Williams Partners and EagleClaw Midstream Ventures)

April 17 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Monday:

** China’s Ant Financial has sweetened its bid for MoneyGram International Inc by over a third, beating a rival offer to gain approval from the U.S. electronic payment firm’s board, although it still faces regulatory hurdles.

** Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s bid for clothing retailer Bonobos, which surfaced last week, is the latest step in the company’s attempt to recover lost ground against Amazon.com Inc and others in the rapidly growing online fashion world, analysts and retail consultants said.

** Apple Inc is considering teaming up with its supplier Foxconn to bid for Toshiba Corp’s semiconductor business, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday - the latest twist in the sale of the world’s second-biggest flash memory chipmaker.

** Diversified healthcare company Abbott Laboratories on Friday agreed to buy Alere Inc at a lower price than it had previously offered, after raising concerns about the accuracy of various representations, warranties and covenants made by Alere in the earlier agreement.

** Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne rowed back on his search for a merger on Friday, saying the car maker was not in a position to seek deals for now and would focus instead on following its business plan.

** U.S. video streaming service provider Netflix is in talks with Indonesia’s top telecom firm PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Telkom) to roll out its service in the country, a spokesman at the Indonesian company said.

** Williams Partners LP said it would sell its stake in a unit that owns 88.46 percent of an olefins plant in Louisiana to Nova Chemicals for $2.1 billion in cash, as part of the pipeline operator’s efforts to focus on natural gas.

** EagleClaw Midstream Ventures LLC, the largest privately held operator of pipelines and processing facilities in West Texas’ Delaware Basin, said it agreed to be bought by funds managed by Blackstone Group LP for about $2 billion.

** U.S. buyout firm Leonard Green & Partners LP has prevailed in an auction to acquire Charter NEX Films Inc, a U.S. manufacturer of specialty films for the food and medical industries, for $1.5 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said.

** China’s Anbang Insurance Group will let its agreement to acquire U.S. annuities and life insurer Fidelity & Guaranty Life for $1.6 billion lapse, after failing to secure all the necessary regulatory approvals, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

** German lighting company Osram is on the lookout for acquisitions worth up to 500 million euros ($530 million), although there are no specific plans for a deal as yet, its finance chief told a German newspaper.

** Malaysian property developer S P Setia Bhd said on Friday it will buy privately held rival I&P; Group for over 3.5 billion ringgit ($794.55 million) to create one of the country’s largest real estate firms.

** Taiwan’s Powertech Technology said on Friday it had bought two of Micron Technology’s interests in Japan in deals worth up to $132 million, part of its efforts to expand its presence in Japanese chip technology.

** Chinese stadium builder Lander Sports said late on Sunday it was terminating plans to buy a stake in English soccer club Southampton, citing uncertain factors wrought by changes in China’s securities market and policies.

** U.S. private equity group Carlyle Group has gained full control of Italian fashion brand TWINSET by buying the remaining 10 percent stake from founder Simona Barbieri, who will step down as the affordable luxury label’s creative director.

** HNA Airport Holding Group Co Ltd is close to buying out the stake that engineering conglomerate Odebrecht SA has in Brazil’s second-busiest international airport, a person briefed on the matter said, partly solving an impasse with a government agency over licensing rights.

** Dynasty Financial Partners LLC, which provides back-end support services to independent wealth management firms, said it had added Next Capital Management to its network of investment advisors. (Compiled by Ahmed Farhatha and Divya Grover in Bengaluru)</s>Williams Partners LP said Monday it will sell its interest in Williams Olefins LLC for $2.1 billion in cash to Nova Chemicals. Williams Olefins owns an 88.5% interest in the Geismar, Louisiana olefins plant. Under terms of the deal, Williams Partners’ subsidiaries will enter long-term contracts to supply Nova with feedstock through its pipeline system. Williams plans to use the proceeds from the deal to pay off a debt and for capital and investment costs. “The Williams Olefins transaction and these announced new supply and transportation agreements fortify our focus on natural gas market fundamentals, reduce our commodity margin exposure and secure our fee-based Gulf Coast transportation business–all consistent with Williams’ strategy to allocate capital to its core, natural gas-focused business,” said Chief Executive Alan Armstrong. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has gained 6.8% year to date, while the S&P 500 has tacked on 4%.</s>* Williams partners agrees to sell its interests in the Geismar Olefins Facility to Nova Chemicals for $2.1 billion; announces long-term feedstock supply and transportation agreements with Nova Chemicals

* Says proceeds to be used to pay down debt and pre-fund capital investments

* Plans to use cash proceeds from Williams Olefins transaction to pay off its $850 million term loan

* Expects for federal tax purposes, any taxable gain generated from transaction will be sheltered by net operating loss carry-forwards

* Says Morgan Stanley & Co acted as lead financial adviser to Williams Partners on transaction

* Units to enter long-term supply, transportation agreements with Nova Chemicals to provide feedstock to Geismar Olefins plant Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2017. Follow Reuters on Twitter.</s>Williams Partners agrees to sell its stake in Williams Olefins, which owns an 88.46% interest in the Geismar, La., olefins plant, to NOVA Chemicals for $2.1B. WPZ also will enter into long-term supply and transportation agreements with NOVA Chemicals to provide feedstock to the Geismar plant through WPZ's Bayou Ethane pipeline system on the Gulf coast.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Seeking Alpha.</s>Williams Partners (NYSE:WPZ) agrees to sell its stake in Williams Olefins, which owns an 88.46% interest in the Geismar, La., olefins plant, to NOVA Chemicals for $2.1B.

WPZ also will enter into long-term supply and transportation agreements with NOVA Chemicals to provide feedstock to the Geismar plant through WPZ's Bayou Ethane pipeline system on the Gulf coast.

WPZ says it plans to use the sale proceeds to pay off its $850M term loan and fund part of the capital and investment expenditures that are part of its growth portfolio.</s>April 17 (Reuters) - Pipeline operator Williams Partners LP said it would sell its stake in a unit that owns 88.46 percent of an olefins plant in Louisiana to Nova Chemicals for $2.1 billion in cash.

Williams Partners also said its units would enter into long-term supply and transportation agreements with Nova after the deal closes, expected by this summer.

The asset sale announced on Monday is part of Williams' strategy to reduce its reliance on commodity margins and focus on natural gas.

Williams Cos Inc, which controls and is the majority shareholder of Williams Partners, has also said it is focused on growing natural gas volumes.

Williams Partners said on Monday it expects to generate 97 percent of its fee-based revenue from natural gas sales after the close of the asset sale.

The company said it planned to use the deal proceeds to pay off $850 million of its debt, and fund a portion of its capital and investment expenses.

Calgary-based Nova Chemical is owned by International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), formed by the Abu Dhabi government to invest in the energy and related sectors.

Morgan Stanley and Centerview Partners LLC were financial advisers to Williams Partners, with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Kean Miller LLP providing legal counsel. (Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)</s>Williams Partners LP said on Monday it would sell its stake in a unit that owns 88.46 per cent of an olefins plant in Louisiana to Nova Chemicals for $2.1-billion in cash, as part of the pipeline operator’s efforts to focus on natural gas.

The company said its units would enter into long-term supply and transportation agreements with Nova after the deal closes, expected by this summer.

Williams Partners, which put the Geismar, Louisiana plant on the block in September, said it expects to generate 97 per cent of its fee-based revenue from natural gas sales after the close of the asset sale.

The plant produces about 1.95 billion pounds of ethylene annually and was rebuilt in 2014, following an explosion a year earlier that left two workers dead and 167 injured.

Ethylene is a key component used to make chemicals, but prices of the commodity have suffered due to over-supply in the U.S. market.

Williams Cos Inc, which controls and is the majority shareholder of Williams Partners, has also said it is focused on growing natural gas volumes after the collapse of its more than $20-billion takeover by Energy Transfer Equity LP.

Williams Partners said it planned to use the deal proceeds to pay off $850-million of its debt, and fund a portion of its capital and investment expenses.

Calgary-based Nova Chemical is owned by International Petroleum Investment Company, set up by the Abu Dhabi government to invest in the energy and related sectors.

Morgan Stanley and Centerview Partners LLC were financial advisers to Williams Partners, while Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Kean Miller LLP provided legal counsel.</s>Calgary-based Nova Chemicals Corporation is buying a majority stake in infrastructure supplier Williams Partners LP’s olefins plant in Geismar, Louisiana for $2.1 billion.

Nova will acquire Williams Partners’ 88.46% stake in the olefins plant, including approximately 525 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the plant, and Williams’ interest in the ethylene trading hub in Mt. Belvieu, Texas.

Under terms of the deal, Williams Partners’ subsidiaries will enter long-term contracts to supply Nova with feedstock through its pipeline system.

The plant produces approximately 1.95 billion lbs of ethylene annually and is located in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, the largest refining and petrochemical production hub in North America. With riverfront access, the adjacent land represents a significant opportunity for future growth, Nova said in a statement. “This transaction provides us with the opportunity to acquire an operating facility with immediate, positive cash flow, and with access to new customers and the benefits of an experienced workforce,” Todd Karran, Nova’s president and CEO, said in the statement. “A key component of our growth strategy is to expand to the U.S. Gulf Coast and leverage next generation technology to better serve our customers in the Americas. This allows us to diversify our geographic footprint benefiting from access to significant U.S. shale gas reserves and well established petrochemical and supply chain infrastructure.”

The transaction is expected to close in summer 2017.</s>Williams Partners (NYSE:WPZ) has recently announced a major asset sale which should please investors, even though it could negatively impact the company's earnings in the short term.

Recently, Williams announced that it will sell Williams Olefins LLC which owns 88.46% interest in an olefins plant in Geismar, Louisiana to Calgary, Canada-based NOVA Chemicals for $2.1 billion in cash. In addition to this, Williams has also entered into a long-term agreement under which the MLP will supply feedstock to the olefins plant through its Bayou Ethane pipeline system. The company expects to close the deal in the summer of 2017.

Williams, however, may have to revise down its future growth expectations. Last year, Williams' delivered a blowout performance by posting 8.3% increase in earnings (adjusted EBITDA) to $4.43 billion. It further said that it expects to increase the earnings to $4.6 billion in 2017, but the guidance included the impact of Geismar's operations. Therefore, following the sale, the MLP may cut its earnings forecast. However, investors should think of this as a short-term pain which will bring long-term gains.

A major benefit of the deal is that it will significantly boost Williams' cash reserves, which will help the company in cutting its debt load. One of Williams' biggest problems has been a weak balance sheet, but the partnership has worked hard to improve its financial health by reducing its debt.

The MLP has seen its total debt climb from a little more than $18 billion at the start of 2015 to more than $20 billion by the end of 2Q-2016. Williams' leverage, measured in terms of debt-to-adjusted-EBITDA, climbed to an uncomfortable level of 4.8x by the end of 2015. That was also higher than the company's long-term target range of 4x to 4.5x. But last year, Williams managed to reduce its debt load by more than $1 billion to $18.56 billion while its leverage has gradually fallen to a more comfortable level of 4.2x.

Moving forward, its financial health will improve further as debt continues to decline. In 4Q-2016 earnings presentation, Williams said that it has further reduced its debt by $1.35 billion in February. Recently, it said that it will use the $850 million of the cash proceeds from the sale of olefins plant to repay the term loan.

That should please investors because the reduction in debt can have a positive impact on Williams' valuation. In addition to this, it will also make it easier for Williams to grow distributions since it will be in a better position to return the excess cash flow to shareholders instead of using that to reduce debt. As a reminder, Williams aims to increase its distributions by 5% to 7% in 2017.

In addition to this, the sale of olefins plant will allow Williams to increase its focus on its core, fee-based, midstream businesses. Prior to the latest sale, around 93% of the company's gross margins came from fee-based businesses while a majority of the remainder came from olefins which isn't fee-based and has significant exposure to commodity prices. But after unloading the olefins plant, Williams will get around 97% of gross margins from fee-based revenues, most of which will come from transportation of natural gas.

Moreover, the cash proceeds from the asset sale will help Williams in funding its growth projects. Williams has planned to invest $2.1 billion to $2.8 billion this year on a number of growth projects. Around $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion will be spent to complete expansion work on one of Williams' biggest asset - the Transco pipeline network which is the largest and fastest growing natural gas interstate pipeline system in the US. Transco's contracted capacity is projected to increase from 12 MMDt/d to 13.6 MMDt/d in 2017 and 17.7 MMDt/d in the long run. The funds will also be used to ramp up other interstate pipelines while the majority of the remainder will be used to expand the MLP's gathering and processing capabilities in the Northeast region. These projects will play a crucial role in fueling the MLP's earnings and distributable cash flow growth in the long run.

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I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.</s>Nova Chemicals has announced a second major investment on the U.S. Gulf Coast as it continues exploring building a new polyethylene plant in Sarnia-Lambton.

The Calgary-based company said Monday it has agreed to pay Williams Partners $2.1 billion US for that company's 88.46 per cent ownership of an olefins plant producing approximately 1.95 billion pounds of ethylene annually in Geismar, Louisiana.

The deal also comes with approximately 525 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the plant, and Williams' interest in the Ethylene Trading Hub in Mt. Belvieu, Texas.

“A key component of our growth strategy is to expand to the U.S. Gulf Coast and leverage next generation technology to better serve our customers in the Americas,” CEO Todd Karran said in a news release.

Monday's announcement follows news earlier this year that Nova Chemicals is part of a joint venture with Total and Borealis that could see a $1.7-billion US ethylene cracker, and new polyethylene plant, built on the Gulf Coast in Texas.

“We have taken steps to firmly establish our presence on the U.S. Gulf Coast,” Karran said.

Company spokesperson Meaghan Kreeft said Nova continues to explore building a new polyethylene manufacturing facility in Sarnia-Lambton's Chemical Valley.

“The base case remains the Sarnia-Lambton region, and we expect a final investment decision later in 2017,” Kreeft said in an e-mail.

Nova first proposed building a new Sarnia-Lambton plant in 2011 and has been working through municipal planning approvals for a site on Rokeby Line, next to its Corunna plant in St. Clair Township.

The company has said construction of a new polyethylene plant in Sarnia-Lambton would be tied to an expansion of its Corunna site to boost output of ethylene, a chemical it uses to make polyethylene at its Moore and St. Clair River plant sites, also in St. Clair Township.

Steve Arnold, mayor of St. Clair Township, said the company's plans to spend money on the U.S. coast could be a positive signal for Sarnia-Lambton

“I would assume they're feeling they have a lot of confidence in their business,” he said.

“They're investing money into areas and regions that they feel are strategic for themselves.”

Nova Chemicals has been spending large amounts of money in recent years converting its Corunna plant to use natural gas liquids as feedstock, and has been connecting the facility by pipeline to shale gas regions of the eastern U.S.

Arnold said the township and Nova have recently been working to finalize a site plan agreement for construction of a new plant.

“Everything seems to be in order, from what the township's position is,” Arnold said.

“We want that investment here, and we've done everything we could to make sure our community was a great community for them to strategically invest and continue moving forward.”

Arnold said company officials have said a decision is expected in the second quarter of this year.

Nova Chemicals is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the International Petroleum Investment Company of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Karran called support the company's board of directors and owner have shown for investments on the Gulf Coast “a clear indication of their commitment to the growth of our business and to these value-adding investments in the Americas.”

Nova Chemicals also recently began production at a new polyethylene plant it built in Alberta.

“It's great to see a company investing money,” Arnold said.

“It means they're on a growth cycle and not a shrinking cycle.”
American pipeline operator Williams Partners has agreed to sell an olefins plant in Louisiana to Canadian chemical company Nova Chemicals for $2.1 billion.