Laredo Petroleum (LPI)

[dan_s]

TULSA, OK, July 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Laredo Petroleum, Inc., a Delaware corporation (LPI) (“Laredo” or the “Company”), announced today the pricing of an upsized underwritten public offering of 13,000,000 shares of its common stock for total gross proceeds (before underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses) of approximately $139.1 million. The Company has also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,950,000 additional shares of the Company’s common stock.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the shares of common stock to repay borrowings under its senior secured credit facility incurred for working capital purposes and to fund the purchase price of the Company’s recently announced asset acquisition.

The offering is expected to close on or about July 19, 2016, subject to customary closing conditions.

TULSA, OK, July 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Laredo Petroleum, Inc. (LPI) (“Laredo” or the “Company”) today announced that it has signed a purchase and sale agreement for additional acreage within the Company's existing footprint in the Midland Basin for $125 million, subject to customary closing price adjustments. The acquisition secures additional rights to the Spraberry interval, enables the drilling of additional 10,000-foot or longer locations, facilitates the new Western Glasscock production corridor and increases the Company's working interest in current leasehold in western Glasscock and Reagan counties, Texas.

The acquisition adds approximately 9,200 net acres, of which approximately 6,300 are in the Spraberry interval and approximately 2,900 net acres are in the Spraberry, Upper, Middle and Lower Wolfcamp, Canyon and Cline zones. The purchase includes approximately 300 net barrels of oil equivalent per day of Laredo-operated production from existing vertical wells through increased working interest in the wells.

The primary focus of the acquisition is the Company's acreage position in western Glasscock County. The contiguous acreage block drives capital efficiencies by enabling the building of the Company's new Western Glasscock production corridor, developing the entire block with 10,000-foot or longer laterals and utilization of Laredo's Earth Model to optimize location selection and completion design.

The acreage outside of the Western Glasscock production corridor is in Laredo's primary development area, proximate to other Laredo production corridors and covered by the Earth Model. The acreage bolts on directly to current drilling units and further enables the development of the acreage with 10,000-foot or longer laterals.

"This acquisition combines the acreage attributes and strategic investments that are drivers of the Company's capital efficiencies," commented Randy A. Foutch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Acquiring additional Spraberry rights, utilizing the Earth Model to optimize location selection and completion design and drilling long laterals along the new Western Glasscock production corridor enables the Company to efficiently develop this large, contiguous acreage block in western Glasscock County."

On July 13, 2016, the Company closed a portion of this acquisition for approximately $92.7 million. The closings on the remaining interests, which are subject to certain preferential purchase rights and consents, are expected to occur as such rights and consents are satisfied or obtained.

Commodity Derivatives Update

In early July, the Company hedged 2,007,500 barrels of oil for 2017, resulting in 5,684,875 barrels of oil hedged for 2017 at a weighted-average floor price of $57.01 per barrel. The Company retains significant upside to an increase in the price of oil as approximately 2,628,000 of these barrels have a weighted-average ceiling price of $97.22 per barrel and 1,049,375 barrels have no ceiling. Additionally, the Company hedged 444,000 barrels of ethane for 2017 at $11.24 per barrel and 375,000 barrels of propane for 2017 at $22.26 per barrel.

About Laredo

Laredo Petroleum, Inc. is an independent energy company with headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Laredo's business strategy is focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of oil and natural gas properties, and the transportation of oil and natural gas from such properties, primarily in the Permian Basin in West Texas.

Additional information about Laredo may be found on its website at www.laredopetro.com.

[dan_s]

The dilution lowers my valuation of LPI by $0.35/share to $14.30. An updated forecast model has been posted to the website.

The new leasehold should improve the long-term outlook for the company, but I need to see some new production guidance before I can adjust future period production.