Floyd Wilson made a $303 million Texas land deal last week that buys time and provides cash for the chief executive of Halcón Resources Corp (HK.N) to do what he does best: spruce up an oil company and sell it off to the highest bidder.
Wilson sold less-desirable land in northern Texas, but retained lucrative land in eastern Texas. The move immediately lowered average operating costs and gave a $13 million after-tax boost to the $3 million cash reserves Halcón reported at the end of the second quarter.
The deal also enables Wilson and the company's 450 employees to focus on assets in the El Halcón and Woodbine shales in Texas, as well as in the Bakken in North Dakota and the Utica field in Ohio.
"We will be successful," Wilson said in an interview on Thursday over a glass of Diet Coke. "I've been doing this a long time. Nothing keeps me up at night."
Wall Street is anxiously waiting to see if Wilson can replicate the feat he pulled off in 2011 when he sold Petrohawk Energy to BHP Billiton Plc (BHP.AX) for $12.1 billion, a 65 percent premium over the share price before the sale was announced.
Although his new company is only two years old, Wilson is already testing the patience, and wallets, of his investors. Halcón's stock price is down more than 30 percent this year following multiple stock offerings and concerns about a $2.71 billion debt load, which exceeds the company's market value.More at the link.
My hunch: he won't hold acreage in the Utica if the going gets tough.
Regular readers will remember this other link regarding Halcon from yesterday: Halcon trading at 52-week lows.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.