Laredo Energy VI weighs sale worth up to $300 million

NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- Laredo Energy VI LP, a private-equity backed natural gas explorer in the Eagle Ford Shale of south Texas, is exploring a sale that could value the company at as much as $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Houston-based company is working with an adviser on an auction process, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. Laredo in recent weeks has opened a so-called data room, a secure online site where suitors can review sensitive financial information before making offers, the people said. Several private equity firms are considering bids, they said.

A spokeswoman for Laredo declined to comment.

Laredo, with investors including Avista Capital Partners, leases 72,000 acres in a slice of the Eagle Ford, just north of the Mexican border known as the dry gas window, which means wells there primarily spout raw natural gas and very little or no liquid hydrocarbons. Laredo produces the equivalent of 113 MMcfd, according to its website.

The company underwent a corporate reorganization in the first half of 2017 that involved new management taking over. Laredo is now led by Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Wieland, former head of corporate development and chief financial officer for Stonegate Production Co., according to his biography on the company’s website.

Laredo Energy isn’t affiliated with Laredo Petroleum Inc., a publicly traded oil and gas explorer that operates in the Permian basin of Texas and New Mexico.