Enterprising Investor
10 años hace
Talisman founding CEO cheers prospect of Repsol takeover (7/25/14)
By Scott Haggett
(Reuters) - Talisman Energy Inc's founding chief executive said on Friday he hopes Repsol SA successfully acquires the Canadian company he built into an international oil player because the Spanish oil major can make the best use of Talisman's worldwide assets.
Jim Buckee, who became chief executive of Talisman when BP Plc spun off its Canadian assets in 1992 and built it into one of Canada's largest oil companies through a series of acquisitions, said that a takeover might be the best outcome for the company he ran until he retired in 2007.
"I hope it goes through with Repsol. They're a reputable world player and Talisman sure needs something .. They lost the plot somewhere," Buckee told Reuters in a telephone interview from his home in England.
Talisman, Canada's fifth-largest independent oil producer, said earlier this week it had been "approached by Repsol with regards to various transactions", pushing its shares up by more than 11 percent after touching a
52-week low of C$10.48 just before the news broke.
The Toronto-listed shares were down 0.5 percent at C$11.70 by midafternoon on Friday.
The Canadian company has long been considered a takeover target as low natural-gas prices and problems with its North Sea operations lowered profits and its share price. It is now restructuring, trimming operations and staff to cut debt and assuage disgruntled shareholders and activist investors such as Carl Icahn.
Buckee, who no longer has formal ties to the company but still owns about 200,000 Talisman shares, said it has been hampered by a series of strategic mistakes following his departure.
In particular, he says, the 2012 decision to put Talisman's troubled North Sea operations into a joint venture with China's Sinopec had effectively "sterilized the asset" while its push into shale gas came too late and made the company too dependent on North American natural gas.
Talisman "got rid of a bunch of oil assets and went big into the unconventional which was a bit unfortunate because everyone else did that at the same time," he said.
"If you become a one-trick pony then you live and die by that. And that's not necessarily the right thing to do."
However Buckee, who claims no inside knowledge, said he believes Repsol may be interested in Talisman for its North American shale assets and their potential to supply liquefied natural-gas plants.
"My guess is that Repsol sees an easy way to get a big foothold in North American unconventional (gas). And I'd think Repsol has one eye on the LNG game too, because it's quite an international player, and Talisman will give you a lot of access to unconventional gas ... What they'll do with the other bits, I don't know."
Talisman could not be immediately reached for comment.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/25/us-talisman-repsol-buckee-idUSKBN0FU24R20140725?type=companyNews
Enterprising Investor
10 años hace
Why a Talisman Breakup Might Not Be Bad for Investors (7/29/14)
By Matt DiLallo
Rumors are swirling around Talisman Energy (TSX: TLM) (NYSE: TLM) that it has been approached by Spain’s Repsol about a potential buyout. However, as Reuters noted in a recent article, Talisman Energy’s real appeal could be in its individual assets. The company’s assets are spread around the globe and don’t exactly fit as a cohesive unit. Because of this, it might be able to extract more value for its investors by selling the company off in smaller pieces. Let’s take a closer look at which pieces might hold the most value.
Breaking up isn’t hard to do
Since 2011, Talisman Energy has slowly sold off assets as the company refocuses. To date, these sales have seen the company exit seven non-core positions, which brought in $6.6 billion in proceeds. The company expects to sell another $2 billion in assets over the next year and a half if the entire company isn’t sold first.
Next on the list of assets to exit is the North Sea. That exit would enable Talisman Energy to get its focus down to just two core regions: the Americas and Asia-Pacific. The reason it is choosing these two regions is because Talisman likes the long-term growth potential from its Americas region, while it also enjoys the sustainable free cash flow from Asia-Pacific. However, there are assets in both regions that might be worth more in a sale than by internal development.
Cashing in
In a recent investor presentation, Talisman Energy rated its core assets in three areas: the asset’s materiality to its business, its cost structure, and its competitive advantage. One of the assets that received the lowest marks was its Eagle Ford Shale assets in Texas. The company noted specifically that its competitive advantage in the Eagle Ford Shale was evolving. Further, that asset isn’t as large, nor does it have as compelling a cost structure as some of its other assets.
That being said, the company sees its position being free cash flow positive starting in 2016. Furthermore, it sees high value liquids growth and upside as technology increases production from the play. That being said, it’s an asset that could be sold for a solid value to a competitor that wants to increase its scale in the play, which should improve the materiality, cost structure, and competitive advantage of that position for the buyer.
We’ve seen a number of producers, including EnCana and Devon Energy, spend big money to acquire a position in the play. Meanwhile, other producers are bulking up their position in the play as scale yields higher returns when it comes to shale plays.
Another asset that Talisman Energy could look to part with is its position in the emerging Duvernay Shale. The company noted that while the asset base was material, its cost structure was still evolving. Because of this it has been looking for a joint venture partner to cash in on a portion of its acreage in the play, which was the route taken by EnCana as it sold a 49.9% interest in 445,000 acres for $2.18 billion in 2012.
However, Talisman Energy sees its position in the play delivering daily production of 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of the decade, along with more than $1.5 billion in cash flow. Because of that, it’s an asset that the company could look to simply pare down and then develop as its new core if it decides to stay independent.
Finally, the company’s assets in Asia-Pacific also hold a lot of value. It sees its assets in Indonesia being material to its business, while those assets, along with its assets in Vietnam, have an exceptional cost structure. Overall, its assets in the region are expected to produce 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and generate $1.2 billion in cash flow this year. Furthermore, that cash flow is expected to grow by about 10% annually. That being said, while the company sees these assets as being a strategic fit, this is an asset base that could be sold at quite a premium in today’s market.
Investor takeaway
Talisman Energy has some tough choices ahead. It could just sell out to the highest bidder. However, a sale could leave a lot of money on the table as it has a lot of assets that are still developing. The company’s other option is to sell off a couple of its more valuable assets at a premium and then use that cash to reinvest in the Duvernay, for example, and really create a lot of value over the long term.
http://www.fool.ca/2014/07/29/why-a-talisman-breakup-might-not-be-bad-for-investors/
Enterprising Investor
10 años hace
Talisman Energy and Statoil reverse course on South Texas sale, media reports (7/10/14)
Talisman Energy Inc. and Statoil ASA have scrapped plans to sell their joint venture in the Eagle Ford Shale after it attracted lower-than-expected bids, wire service Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
The companies were seeking as much as $4 billion for the 50-50 partnership, according to Bloomberg, which says its sources asked not to be identified because the matter is not public. Bids fell short in part because the venture produces especially light condensate rather than pricier crude oil, according to the story.
A spokesman for Canada-based Talisman declined comment on the report. He also declined to say whether the company had solicited bids for its South Texas holdings.
"We don't comment on rumor and speculation," Talisman spokesman Brent Anderson says.
Officials with Statoil, based in Norway, were unavailable for comment at press time.
Talisman said in March it plans to sell $2 billion of assets in 18 months so it can focus on a smaller number of areas. This month, it announced plans to unload Australian operations.
Speculation swirled last year that Talisman wanted to put its Eagle Ford holdings on the sales block for us much as $2 billion and that it was working through the Royal Bank of Canada to find a buyer. The company owns 74,000 acres in South Texas, where it maintains the venture with Statoil.
The two companies have been partners in the venture since 2010, Talisman spokesman Anderson confirmed.
Recent Eagle Ford asset sales have generated big returns as energy companies look to expand in the thriving, oil-rich play and as early investors look to cash out.
In February, Oklahoma's Devon Energy Corp. dropped $6 billion to buy GeoSouthern Energy's Eagle Ford acreage in a bid to boost oil production. And earlier this summer, Houston’s Sanchez Energy Corp. announced plans to buy energy giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Eagle Ford acreage for $639 million.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/blog/eagle-ford-shale-insight/2014/07/talisman-energy-and-statoil-reverse-course-on.html?page=all
Timothy Smith
11 años hace
Carl Icahn announced that he has, through his various holding companies, increased his position in Talisman energy to 61mm common shares, representing 5.97% of the company’s total outstanding shares. Mr. Icahn also announced his intention to have conversations with management about asset sales or restructuring.
I note that Talisman’s management has already been actively pursuing asset sales in an effort to unlock shareholder value. I believe that Mr. Icahn’s position in the stock may accelerate these efforts further. However, the current asset market is fairly soft, with a large number of land packages available in Western Canada.
I currently carry US$15 for Talisman’s RENAV on strip pricing, which suggests that there is relatively little upside from corporate activism in the current price environment. Additionally, Talisman has some tax issues that could prevent that full value from being realized in a corporate break-up scenario.
OilStockReport
13 años hace
A little update....
We haven’t done any reporting on Talisman Energy in the past, but we recently came across and intriguing analysis of the company. Needless to say, it caught our interest, and we wanted to share the information with our readers. Shareholders Unite give the bare essentials that you need to know about this company, check out the stats.
Some metrics
Market cap: $15.36B on 1.02B shares outstanding (all of them in the float), 1.03M short
$3.93B in debt, 873M in cash
Enterprise value (EV): $18.4B
Production 420,000 BOE/d
Proven and probable (P2) reserves: 2.2BBOE
EV per P2 Barrel: $8.50
NPV (10) of P2 reserves about $18B
Cash flow $4 per share so P/CF of 3.75x
Dividend yield about 1.8%
Production Prospects
Opinions differ considerably about the immediate prospects. Zacks is rather negative and has cut the company’s stock to underperform on October 26 (with a $12 price target) following the cut in its annual production target for the second time in about two months. TLM expects repair work in the North Sea and weather-related issues in Canada to hurt operations and lower average output for 2011. They also cite low gas prices (in America) as a reason.
What do you think? They have a lot of production in the U.S. which is what we like. Additionally, they seem to be seeking additional assets and exploration locations. Sounds like an interesting company, doing interesting things.
ChitForBrains
13 años hace
With today's news on production loss in the North Sea, they'er still predicting an increase in the overall production, ?! With strong growth in shale production, the startups at Rev and Claymore, and delivery of the Kitan project in Australia, the company expects production to increase substantially in the fourth quarter. However, these unplanned events are expected to result in 2011 production averaging around 425,000 boe/d.