Chesapeake adds to southeast Texas holdings with $3.9-billion buy

NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- Chesapeake Energy’s acquisition of WildHorse Resource Development for about $3.977 billion will add operations in the Eagle Ford shale and Austin Chalk formations of southeast Texas.

Chesapeake would assume WildHorse’s $930 million of net debt, and the company projects the deal improving its 2019 net debt to EBITDA ratio to about 3.6x, based on current strip prices Each WildHorse common shareholder will have the choice of either 5.989 shares of Chesapeake common stock or a combination of 5.336 shares of Chesapeake common stock and $3 in cash, Both boards of directors have unanimously approved the deal Chesapeake expects the deal to double its adjusted oil production by 2020 from stand-alone adjusted 2018 estimates, to 125,000 to 130,000 bopd in 2019, and 160,000 to 170,000 bpd in 2020, while adding to EBITDA per barrel by about 35% and 50% in those respective periods The cash portion of the deal, worth between $275 million and about $400 million, is expected to be financed through Chesapeake’s revolving credit facility, and deal close is targeted in the first half of 2019