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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on November 1, 2010 at 2:25

Thanks. Here's the official EXCO news release.

http://www.excoresources.com/single-news-release.htm?regid=1489519

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Permalink Reply by jffree1 on November 1, 2010 at 5:44

UPDATE 2-EXCO gets management-led buyout offer worth $4.36 bln

2010-11-01 09:59:00.0
BANGALORE, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The CEO of EXCO Resources Inc , possibly backed by shareholders including oilman T. Boone Pickens, has offered to buy the gas-focused explorer for about $4.36 billion, in a big bet on natural gas at a time when prices are falling.

While investing in shale gas companies may be expensive, or require too much knowledge of geology, its potential for payoff is still too explosive to ignore.

EXCO's CEO Douglas Miller, who has a 2.15 percent stake in the company, offered to buy the remaining shares at $20.50 apiece -- a premium of 38 percent to the company's Friday close of $14.83.

Oilman and natural gas proponent Pickens, as well as the company's largest stakeholder, Oaktree Capital Management LP, and Ares Management LLC, have expressed an interest in pursuing the deal, Miller said in a letter to the company. Pickens has a 5 percent stake in the company. Oaktree Capital has a 16.4 percent stake, while Ares Management holds a 6.06 percent stake in the company, according to Thomson Reuters data.

EXCO, which derives almost all of its revenue from natural gas, intends to form a special committee to consider the proposal, it said in a statement. The company, which also owns interest in a midstream operation, has its main oil and gas assets in East Texas, North Louisiana, Appalachia and the Permian basin.

'As a public company you can't cut production and capital expenditure, as the markets will punish you,' Wunderlich Securities analyst Neal Dingmann said. 'So it makes more sense in a situation like this to take the company private.'

Gas prices have shed more than 21 percent of their value year to date. Crude Oil, meanwhile, is up 4 percent.

BIG BETS ON GAS

Pickens has long advocated for natural gas-fueled vehicles and has publicly declared himself a proponent of domestically produced natural gas. In August, his firm, Dallas-based BP Capital said it had acquired 599,788 shares of Quicksilver Resources Inc, which also recently got a buyout offer from an investor group including its chairman and chief executive.

When Exxon Mobil Corp agreed to buy shale gas producer XTO Energy Inc for $30 billion in stock last December, it rekindled interest in a sector that is expected to quadruple its U.S. output over the next 15 years.

Factbox on key shale deals since 2009

EXCO itself has been involved in a string of deals. Last year, it agreed to sell more than $1.1 billion of assets in a drive to divest non-core assets.

EXCO then began revamping its portfolio of assets and its exposure to the gas-rich Haynesville shale by buying Common Resources LLC in partnership with British gas producer BG Group.

EXCO also bought some shale property from Southwestern Energy -- in which Boone Pickens' BP Capital has a stake -- for about $355 million.

However, the divestitures and joint venture hurt the company's second-quarter results. The company is scheduled to report third-quarter results on Tuesday.

Shares of the Dallas, Texas-based company were up 38 percent at $20.36, before paring gains to trade $5 up at $19.80 Monday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.

Miller's financial advisers for the deal are J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Goldman Sachs & Co. (Reporting by Vaishnavi Bala and Arup Roychoudhury in Bangalore; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan, Jarshad Kakkrakandy) Keywords: EXCORESOURCES/

http://www.xe.com/news/2010/11/01/1494461.htm?utm_source=RSS&ut...

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Permalink Reply by JHH on November 1, 2010 at 6:59

I think it's great to get things stirred up. The big pot will be stirred November 2nd. jhh

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on November 1, 2010 at 8:33

I think it will be to the right, but not quite a landslide.

I also predict a slew of recounts and lawsuits over "voter fraud"

And to all those who live in Chicago and New Orleans, watch out, Halloween may be over, but the dead will somehow make it the polls tommorow.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on November 1, 2010 at 8:35

Anyway, back to topic.....

I wonder what Boone is up to. Its obvious he has a long term bullish opinion on gas, but he is not one to go and spend money without a plan either.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on November 1, 2010 at 8:52

Does anyone know the specifics of BG's gas contract(s)?

Anyone who expects that things will be different after the election, regardless of the outcome, hasn't been paying attention the least ten years.

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Permalink Reply by TRUCKER on November 1, 2010 at 8:59

HELL NO

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