Lehman Brothers Private Fund Marketing Group was placement agent. The fund's investment team is led by Corbin J. Robertson Jr., whose family founded Quintana Petroleum in the 1930s with Hugh Roy Cullen.
Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans is also a fund manager.
"In a shifting energy landscape, we see enormous investment potential across the entire energy industry over the next several years," Evans says. "We look forward to putting our experience and expertise to work on behalf of our limited partners, who have shown great confidence in the fund's investment team by helping us exceed our fund-raising goal, with the assistance of Lehman Brothers."
The investment team also includes Warren S. Hawkins, Brock E. Morris, Corbin J. Robertson III and William K. Robertson. The fund has already committed approximately $140 million to seven companies: Coldren Oil and Gas; Consolidated Oil Well Services; Cypress; Gulfstream Terminals and Marketing; Quintana WellPro; Stone Mountain Resources; and XL Prospect.
• Leor Exploration & Production LLC, Houston, has received a $150-million private-equity placement from Merrill Lynch PCG. Also, Leor subsidiaries received a $150-million three-year senior secured, revolving credit facility from JPMorgan Chase Bank.
Leor's founders maintain a controlling stake in the company with more than 83% of the equity.
"Following so soon after the initiation of an attractive new banking facility with JPMorgan Chase, we are delighted to have Merrill Lynch join Leor as a major equity participant," says Leor chairman Thomas S. Kaplan.
"Our alliance with two premier institutional equity investors, Goldman Sachs and now Merrill Lynch, nicely complements our industrial partnership with EnCana Corp. (NYSE: ECA), one of the leading names in natural gas E&P worldwide."
Leor chief executive Guma Aguiar says the company will use the bulk of the proceeds to accelerate development of a flagship project in Amoruso Field, and continue exploration in the Deep Bossier trend. (For more on this play, see "East Texas Gas," Oil and Gas Investor, January 2007.)
CPM Group was the introducing broker on the financing.
• Legacy Reserves LP, Midland, Texas, (Nasdaq: LGCY) has closed its IPO of 6.9 million units at $19 each for proceeds of $120 million. The initial expected price range was $18.50 to $20.50. Proceeds will be used to pay debt and for general partnership purposes.
Wachovia Capital Markets LLC and Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. Inc. were joint book-running managers and Raymond James & Associates Inc., RBC Capital Markets Corp., Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. were co-managers.
• Austin, Texas-based MV Oil Trust (NYSE: MVO) priced its IPO of 7.5 million shares at $20 each. The expected price range was $19 to $21.
MV Partners LLC formed the trust in August 2006 to hold 80% of the net proceeds from MV Partners' oil and gas interests in the Midcontinent.
As of June 30, the predominantly oil assets involved approximately 985 wells, with a reserve life of more than 50 years. Production is estimated to total 11.5 million BOE (85% proved developed producing, 98% oil) during the term of the trust.
MV Partners will receive proceeds of $137.4 million from the IPO to pay debt, repurchase certain equity interests and make distributions. Raymond James & Associates Inc. was lead underwriter.
• Trident Resources Corp., Salt Lake City, has withdrawn its plan to raise up to $300 million in an IPO, citing market conditions and changes to its financing plans. The underwriters were Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and TD Securities. Trident is principally focused on coalbed-methane plays in Alberta, the northwestern U.S. and British Columbia.
• Tortoise Capital Resources Corp., Overland Park, Kan., (NYSE: TTO) a closed-end management investment company focused on U.S. energy infrastructure, priced its IPO of 5.7 million shares at $15 each for proceeds of $86.1 million.
Tortoise Capital invests primarily in private and microcap public midstream and downstream companies, and at times in upstream businesses. It is organized as a business development company.
The firm is managed by Tortoise Capital Advisors. Merrill Lynch & Co. was book-running manager. Stifel Nicolaus, Wachovia Securities, Oppenheimer & Co. and Ferris, Baker Watts Inc. were co-managers.
• GeoMet Inc., Houston, (Nasdaq: GMET) has retained Merrill Lynch & Co. to help it seek strategic alternatives, including a possible sale. The company went public in July and recently received unfavorable litigation news.
GeoMet's primary assets are coalbed-methane operations in the Cahaba Basin in Alabama and the Central Appalachian Basin in West Virginia and Virginia. It also has coalbed-methane rights in Alabama, Colorado, Louisiana, Virginia and West Virginia, and in British Columbia.
Proved reserves are approximately 325.7 billion cu. ft. of gas (100% coalbed methane, 75% developed).
• Denver-based Heartland Oil and Gas Corp. (OTCBB: HOGC) has retained Dallas-based Energy Capital Solutions LP to seek strategic alternatives for the company. Heartland has gas assets in Kansas' Forest City Basin.
• Knight Energy Corp., Atlanta, has been formed to acquire assets in Oklahoma. Its first deal was the purchase of Charles Hill Drilling Inc., which owns a 100% working interest in a 160-acre oil and gas lease in Stephens County.
• Devon Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, (NYSE: DVN) has retained Goldman Sachs & Co. and Scotia Waterous to divest all of its assets in West Africa.
The assets include 16 blocks in various stages of E&P and appraisal, consisting of the ExxonMobil-operated Zafiro Field in Equatorial Guinea and other producing properties in Gabon and Cote d'Ivoire.
Total production for 2007 is expected to be 11 million BOE and estimated proved reserves are 90 million BOE, or approximately 4% of Devon's proved reserves. Devon plans to use the proceeds to retire debt and buy back stock.
• BMO Capital Markets, Toronto and Chicago, the investment- and corporate-banking arm of BMO Financial Group (NYSE, Toronto: BMO) has named Tod Benton managing director and head of the energy and power group in Houston. Benton was managing director and head of corporate banking for the energy-, utility- and chemical-industry group of Deutsche Bank previously.
• Natural gas analyst Carol Coale has joined Sanders Morris Harris in Houston and will initiate coverage of Williams (NYSE: WMB) and El Paso Corp. (NYSE: EP). Coverage of small-cap E&P names is to come. She previously managed the Houston office of energy hedge fund MotherRock LP and was an analyst with Prudential Securities. She was ranked among top analysts for five consecutive years by Institutional Investor magazine.
• Dahlman Rose & Co. LLC, New York, has named Neal Dingmann senior vice president, equity research, focusing on oil-services and E&P. Dingmann was a senior energy analyst at Pritchard Capital Partners, where he covered approximately 15 oil-service and E&P companies. He held similar positions at Banc of America Securities and RBC Capital Markets.
• Pritchard Capital Partners LLC, Mandeville, La., has named Jeffrey Hayden and Stephen Berman senior research analysts, primarily focusing on independent E&P companies.
Hayden was managing director and co-portfolio manager of Fischer-Seitz Capital Partners LLC, an E&P-focused investment firm, and director of E&P research for Pickering Energy Partners Inc. He held associate positions with JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management Inc. and Banc of America Securities LLC.
Berman was a partner at Promethean Investment Group where he analyzed energy companies.
• True Energy Trust, Calgary, (Toronto: TUI-UN) plans to convert into an E&P company following proposed changes in Canadian tax law. True converted to an energy trust in November 2005.
The company owns more than 1.1 million gross acres (730,000 net) of undeveloped land and has drilling inventory of more than 600 locations in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Production is 11,500 BOE per day primarily in the Kerrobert, Willesden Green and Ferrier areas.
Tristone Capital Inc. and National Bank Financial Inc. are financial advisors and FirstEnergy Capital Corp., Orion Securities Inc. and Peters & Co. Ltd. are strategic advisors.
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