ONEOK & Starwood Property Trust Complete Their Spinoffs

For some reason, spins tend to cluster around the end of the month, and January 31st witnessed some impressive action with the completion of two separate transactions.

First off, ONEOK (OKE) completed the spinoff of its natural gas distribution business ONE Gas (OGS). The new company is trading under the ticker ‘OGS’ and shareholders of ONEOK should have received one share of the new company for every four shares of OKE owned. Long time ONEOK and Oneok Partners (OKS) Chairman and CEO John Gibson stepped down after the spin and has been succeeded in those roles by Terry Spencer. As we noted earlier, ONEOK will remain in the S&P 500, but ONE Gas will join the Midcap 400 so there might be a ‘forced selling’ dynamic in place here.

The other transaction took place in the world of real estate with Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Property Trust (STWD) completing the spinoff of its residential REIT, Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust (SWAY). The new company will trade under the ticker ‘SWAY’ and STWD shareholders should have received one share of the new company for every 5 STWD shares owned. This spinoff was not expected to be tax free so please check with your respective experts for the treatment of that. For our earlier coverage of this situation, click here.

Disclosure: Author holds no position in any stock mentioned.