LINN Energy, Inc. (ticker: LNGG) entered an agreement to sell its interest in properties located in Wyoming to an undisclosed buyer for a contract price of $200 million, the company said in a press release.
The properties to be sold consist of approximately 163,000 net acres in the Washakie Field in Wyoming with second quarter net production of approximately 66 MMcfe/d, proved reserves of ~226 Bcfe and proved developed PV-10 of approximately $102 million.
Annualized field level cash flow on these properties is approximately $35 million, which does not include estimated annual general and administrative expense of ~$4-5 million. For the fourth quarter of 2017, the company had budgeted approximately $3 million of capital for these properties.
The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017 with an effective date of August 1, 2017.
Additionally LINN said its board authorized an increase in the previously announced share repurchase program to a total of $400 million of its outstanding shares of Class A common stock.
Transformation
“This latest sale of non-core assets is another step forward in the ongoing transformation of LINN from a highly-levered production-based MLP to a low cost, streamlined growth-oriented enterprise. In addition, the Board believes that the incremental liquidity provided by this sale and others is best utilized to continue to repurchase shares at what we believe is still a significant discount to fair market value. Accordingly, the Board has authorized an incremental $200 million for share repurchases from $200 million to $400 million,” said Evan Lederman, Chairman of the Board.
LINN has announced sale agreements with contract prices totaling more than $1.3 billion and through September 30, 2017, LINN has repurchased approximately 4.6 million shares for $157 million at an average price of $34.06 per share, the company said.
Jefferies LLC acted as sole financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP as legal counsel during the transaction.
LINN Energy, Inc. was formed in February 2017 as the reorganized successor to LINN Energy, LLC. LINN’s core focus is the upstream and midstream development of the Merge/SCOOP/STACK in Oklahoma.
