Smart move for Enbridge

Article Excerpt

ENBRIDGE INC. $40.12 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $68.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 6.7%; www.enbridge.com) operates pipelines in Canada and the U.S. In addition, it owns oil and gas storage facilities. The company also controls four affiliates that operate pipelines and related operations: Enbridge Energy Partners, LP (New York symbol EEP), Enbridge Energy Management, LLC (New York symbol EEQ), Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. (Toronto symbol ENF), and Spectra Energy Partners LP (New York symbol SEP). Under a new plan to simplify its corporate structure, Enbridge has offered to acquire 100% of those four affiliates. It will issue a total of 272 million new common shares to shareholders of those firms. In all, those shares are worth $11.4 billion. Changes to the U.S. tax code now make it more advantageous for Enbridge to directly hold the assets of these affiliates, As well, owning 100% of all four businesses should improve the company’s credit rating. That makes it…