JANA Partners Announces Material Withhold Votes at Houston Exploration as a Message to the Board

NEW YORK, April 28  /PRNewswire/ -- JANA Partners LLC ("JANA") announced that, based on indications at the 2006 annual meeting of shareholders of The Houston Exploration Company ("Houston Exploration" or the "Company") (NYSE:THX) held today, a substantial percentage, in excess of 30%, of the votes represented at the meeting were withheld by shareholders from approval of the reelection of incumbent directors.  JANA had urged shareholders to withhold their votes in order to send a message to the Board of the Company to put the proceeds of a recently announced asset sale to work for shareholders through the prompt repurchase of a substantial portion of the Company's outstanding shares.  This overwhelming support is evidenced by comparison to the results from last year's annual meeting where shareholders representing only a total of approximately 4-7% of the shares of the Company withheld their vote for the election of directors.  JANA called on the Company to immediately release the final results of the vote from today's meeting.

Barry Rosenstein, Managing Partner of JANA, stated "Despite JANA having begun less than a week ago to ask fellow shareholders to join it in its campaign to withhold votes for the election of directors at Houston Exploration, the overwhelming support we received speaks volumes about the level of shareholder dissatisfaction.  We urge the Board to listen to this clear and unambiguous message from the owners of the Company that it take steps to maximize shareholder value.  More specifically, the Company must not squander the proceeds of the recently announced asset sale, but put those proceeds to work for shareholders through a significant share repurchase."  He continued, "Shareholders will be watching to see whether the Board pays attention.  If it doesn't, we expect to see a change in the Board next year."

JANA is a hedge fund with in excess of $5 billion in assets with offices in New York and San Francisco and owns approximately 9% of the outstanding shares of Houston Exploration. 

DATASOURCE: JANA Partners LLC



CONTACT:  JANA Partners LLC, [phone]

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