Penn Virginia to begin auction process in September

NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- Penn Virginia Corp. has reached out to potential buyers including Hilcorp Energy Co. and WildHorse Resource Development Corp. ahead of a sale process slated to start next month, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Houston, Texas-based company will open a data room and solicit initial bids in September, said the people, who asked to not be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

A spokesman for Penn Virginia declined to comment. Representatives for Hilcorp and WildHorse didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Penn Virginia said in July that it had hired Jefferies Financial Group Inc. to help it evaluate a sale.

Its shares rose less than 1% to $86.55 on Thursday, giving it a market value of abut $1.3 billion.

Penn Virginia primarily drills for oil and gas in the Eagle Ford shale basin in South Texas, after selling its operations in Oklahoma in July.

The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2016 after eliminating more than $1 billion of debt.