Pioneer Natural Offers to Buy Pioneer Southwest, Valuing it at $1.1 Billion

   By Debbie Cai 
 

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) is proposing to buy all the outstanding shares of Pioneer Southwest Energy Partners LP (PSE) it doesn't already own through a stock-for-unit exchange that values the company at about $1.1 billion.

Shares of Pioneer Southwest, a Delaware-limited partnership headquartered in Dallas, Texas, jumped 19% to $31.10 after hours. The stock is up 15% so far this year.

Pioneer Natural currently owns about 52.4% of the 35,713,700 outstanding common units of the limited partnership. The proposed takeover would be structured as a merger of Pioneer Southwest with a wholly owned subsidiary of Pioneer Natural, which is currently the general partner of Pioneer Southwest.

Pioneer Natural, an oil-and-gas exploration-and-production company with drilling activities in the Permian Basin, is offering to exchange 0.2234 of a share of its stock for each outstanding publicly held Pioneer Southwest unit. Pioneer Natural had about 123.4 million shares outstanding as of Feb. 8.

Last week, Pioneer Natural reported that its first-quarter earnings fell 53% as its results were hurt by a loss on derivatives, though revenue and production increased.

Shares of Pioneer Natural slid 29 cents to $137.50 after hours. The stock is up 31% over the past 12 months.

Write to Debbie Cai at [e-mail]

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